Search for the Galactica
by NOVARAY
Summary: A damaged Cylon Basestar returns to the Cylon home world with information about the Galactica. Now the surviving Colonials must mount a rescue mission.
1. Chapter 1

This is a work of fan fiction done purely for fun and not for profit.

A bright bluish white light appeared in the darkness of space, and the massive Colonial Jupiter Class Battlestar Rycon flashed into existence. A few seconds later more flashes lit up space around her, as five escorting Valkyrie Class Battlestars jumped into the system. Shortly after, the electronics surveillance ship Silent Seeker appeared followed by the Kobolan hospital ship Mercy, a Tylium tanker, and two fleet supply ships.

"All ships accounted for," Captain Jason Bennett the Dradis officer reported as he scanned his Dradis screen, quickly identifying all the green icons that represented Colonial ships.

They were a long way from the Colonies, and the presence of the familiar green icons was comforting. Captain Bennett began to relax knowing that all ships were present. Jumps always made Bennett nervous, especially since they were so far from the Colonies. There was no way to know what might be waiting for them at the end of a jump. There were still a lot of Cylon ships unaccounted for.

"All ships report successful jumps," Captain Amanda Billings the ship's communications officer reported. She was listening on her mini com as the various ships reported in.

"Fleet is at Condition Two as per standard operating procedures," Commander David Stramm reported from his position opposite Admiral Reed at the operations table. He was listening to the various ship commanders over his mini com which was set to the fleet com channel.

"Begin routine system scans," Admiral Reed ordered as he looked at the large Dradis screen, which showed no obvious threats. "Launch standard CAP and prep the survey raptors."

Admiral Reed watched the Dradis screen as the fleet took up a diamond defensive formation with the hospital ship, the Tylium tanker, and the two fleet supply ships in the center. The Rycon was at the front of the formation with four of the Valkyries at the side points and the fifth bringing up the rear. The surveillance ship Silent Seeker moved up to just behind and above the Rycon.

"Silent Seeker reports no energy signals within two light years of us," Captain Angela Simms reported from her surveillance and sensor console. "They're powering up their systems for a full sweep. They should have preliminary results in about twenty minutes. Our own sensors are still scanning the system."

"Initial results from your scans?" Admiral Reed asked looking over at Captain Simms. She hadn't changed much in the last few years. She was still pretty and one of the best sensor operators in the fleet!

"The system we are in is a G type with the primary about twenty two percent larger than Caprica's sun," she reported studying the data coming in on her computer screens. "So far we have detected four planets and a small asteroid field. System scans should be completed in another ten minutes."

Admiral Reed relaxed and looked over at Commander Stramm. "Standard search procedures, let's see if we can find any trace of the Galactica and her fleet."

It had been four years since Admiral Clements had successfully retaken the Colonies from the Cylons. For the first two of those years, tremendous work had been done on repairing ships and securing the Colonies. They had also updated most of the surviving Colonial fleet to Kobolan standards. For the last fourteen months, Admiral Reed had been searching for the Galactica and her refugee fleet. This would be his third time out from the Colonies searching. So far, they hadn't found a trace, other than at Kobol! Where ever Adama had gone, he hadn't left a trail for anyone to follow. This didn't surprise Admiral Reed. Adama was a crafty commander and would not have left a trail for the Cylons to follow. Unfortunately, this made finding his fleet by the surviving Colonials difficult as well.

"CAP is in place," Commander Stramm reported listening to the mini com in his left ear. "Survey raptors are being launched to check the four planets and the asteroid field." Stramm was extremely pleased with the efficiency of his ship's crew. This was a handpicked crew and all were exceptionally well trained.

Admiral Reed knew the raptors would be searching for signs of abandoned ships, wreckage, and any traces of mining operations. Adama had to stop occasionally to resupply his fleet. Somewhere, they had to have left a sign of their presence! They couldn't have just disappeared completely.

Admiral Reed stayed in the CIC for the next several hours, as more raptors were dispatched to survey the system as the final scans came in. The Silent Seeker reported no energy signatures within a ten light year radius. Inside that radius were four G type stars that would need investigating. They were working on the assumption that Adama would be stopping at systems that held a possibility of habitable planets to forage for food and water.

Admiral Reed contacted the Valkyrie Class Battlestars Victory and Independence over his fleet com. "Victory and Independence you have a go for search. Coordinates of your target stars will be transmitted to you from the Silent Seeker. You have four systems to check, good luck and good hunting."

A few minutes later, the two indicated Battlestars vanished in flashes of blue white light as they jumped to the first of their target systems. The two Battlestars would spend enough time in each system to confirm that there was no trace of the Galactica or her civilian fleet, before moving on to the next. If they found a trace, a raptor would jump back to the Rycon and report.

"Commander Stramm, you have the CIC, I'll be in my quarters if you need me," Admiral Reed spoke. A few moments later, he left the CIC.

Reaching his quarters, Admiral Reed sat down in a well-padded comfortable chair and closed his eyes trying to rest. The last several years had been difficult, while they had found a lot of survivors on some of the Colonies; others hadn't fared as well.

His family had lived on Picon in a small-secluded valley close to one of the planet's large oceans. A Cylon 50 megaton bomb had ensured that none of his family survived. Unfortunately for his family, a major defense installation had been located at the far end of the valley. It had been abandoned for years, but the Cylons hit it anyway. His mother, his younger brother, and everyone else that mattered to him were gone. All he had left was the fleet. The fleet was his family now!

Admiral Reed had volunteered to lead the search for the Galactica. It got him away from the Colonies and those memories. Somewhere out here past the Promar sector, the Galactica had fled. They had been pursued by nearly a full quarter of the Cylon fleet's Basestars. The Cylon Colony, as well as their Resurrection Hub, had also followed. That was another reason why it had taken over two years to launch the first search and rescue mission. The Colonies had to be secured first in case the remaining Cylon fleet returned. That had been accomplished, now the search was on.

After a few more minutes, Admiral Reed fell into a restless slumber. In his dreams his family still lived. There was his younger brother, with his carefree laugh, and his mother with that warming smile that was always on her face.

In the CIC Captain Angela Simms had finished her system scans with the Rycon's advanced sensors. These sensors were so much better than the old ones she had used on the Victory when they had attacked the Cylon shipyards during the war. The Kobolans had updated the sensors on the Rycon. The ship had been built in the orbiting shipyard above Demeter and possessed all the latest technological developments from the Kobolans as well as the Colonies. The accompanying Valkyrie class Battlestars had also been updated with Kobolan technology.

The system they were in consisted of seven planets. There was only one in the liquid water zone, and it was on the outer edge of it. Already a survey raptor was in orbit looking for any signs of ship landings or other traces of human visitations. Angela knew they were looking for a needle in a haystack. She had found two small asteroid fields in the system between the sixth and seventh planets, both of which were gas giants. Two other survey raptors were doing a quick scan of the asteroid fields for any traces of mining operations.

Angela got up and walked the short distance to Captain Amanda Billings's communications console. She was still listening to incoming reports over her mini com from the survey raptors, but she wanted to speak to Amanda. "How are things Amanda?" Angela asked stopping next to the young woman.

"Same as usual," Amanda replied with a bored smile. "Everything so far is routine, no one is reporting any traces of the Galactica and her rag tag fleet. Do you think we will ever find them, or what happened to them?"

"I don't know," Angela replied with a slight shake of her head. "There are potentially hundreds of G type stars on the course we believe the Galactic took. If we extend the search pattern out, we would be talking about thousands of stars to search. But we have to try."

"Then there are the Cylons," Amanda spoke with a hint of concern in her voice. "The Cylons that remain on their home world said John Cavil took nearly thirty Basestars with him when he went off after the Galactica and her fleet. Then there is the Baseship and the ships that escaped with it during the battle of the Cylon home world."

"All out here somewhere," Angela replied nodding listening to a report on her mini com in her right ear. She knew that Amanda was listening to the same report. The raptor was in orbit around the planet in the liquid water zone. It was reporting no evidence of plant or animal life on the planet. Looked like another dead end. After each failure, it reminded Angela just how difficult their task was.

"The Cylon Colony and Resurrection Hub are also out here somewhere," Angela continued. "That's why all of our ships are equipped with the latest stealth technology, including the survey raptors."

"What if we find the Cylons, what will we do?" Amanda asked worriedly. She had seen so much death during the Cylon War, even on board the Victory.

"We report back to the Colonies," Angela replied recalling their mission briefing. Admiral Clements had been extremely explicit in his orders. If any Cylon vessels were located, their positions were to be marked and monitored, as long as those operations didn't jeopardize Admiral Reed's fleet. Combat with Cylon forces wasn't authorized unless the fleet was in eminent danger or was discovered.

"What if the Cylons have already found the Galactica? It's been over four years!" Amanda continued. "The fleet we are searching for could have already been destroyed.'

"I doubt it," Angela responded. This was something she had thought a lot about. "If the Galactica and her fleet had been destroyed, then the Cylons would have returned to their home world or at least sent back a ship. Neither has happened, no, the Galactica and her rag tag fleet are out here someplace; we just have to find them."

"I just hope we find them soon," Amanda replied softly.

"Major Simms and I are eating together in the officer's cafeteria after our shifts are over. Would you like to join us? We can invite Captain Bennett if you want," Angela said looking over at the captain who was watching his Dradis screen intently.

"Sure," Amanda replied with a smile. She liked the young captain, and he was pleasant company.

Nodding, Angela walked over and talked briefly with Captain Bennett then with a confirming nod of her head toward Amanda, she returned to her workstation.

Out in space, Major Aaron Simms looked at the Dradis screen in his command viper, checking on the locations of the vipers flying CAP. There were four groups of two flying patrols around the fleet's perimeter. After a moment, he nodded his approval. The vipers were right where they should be. After all the training he had put the Rycon's squadrons through, they were finally performing up to his expectations.

He really liked the new Mark Eight vipers. They had been built at the Demeter orbiting shipyards with some help from Kobolan engineers. The new vipers were slightly larger than the older Mark Sevens. The engines were more powerful, new sensors had been installed, and the new interfaced computer system made tracking targets highly efficient. The vipers were also able to carry six small interceptor missiles as well as larger thirty millimeter twin cannons. What Aaron really liked was the Kobolan inertia compensator system that had been installed. While it didn't totally neutralize the g force in a tight turn or from sudden acceleration it did reduce it by nearly forty percent. This vastly improved the viper's flight capabilities.

Aaron had applied for the CAG position on the Rycon because he wanted to get away from Caprica. Even though there were over twelve million survivors on the planet, it would never be the same again. Flying over blasted cities, burned out towns, and abandoned farms was just too much! Colonel Adams had recommended him for this position, and Admiral Clements had approved the transfer. Susan had remained on Caprica, and her parents had returned to their hunting lodge in the mountains. She had elected to stay on Caprica to be near them. He still checked on her whenever he was on leave.

…

Commander Turner looked over the CIC of the Battlestar Independence. The Victory and Independence were in the second of the four star systems that were on their search list. The first system had contained no planets in the liquid water zone and no asteroid fields. A quick sweep by the two Battlestar's survey raptors had revealed no traces of any past or current human presence in that system, so they had jumped to the next one on their list.

"We're showing two planets in the liquid water zone," Lieutenant Brenda Edmondson reported excitedly from her sensor console.

"Very well," Commander Turner replied with a pleased smile looking over at his Executive Officer Major Burns. "Launch our survey raptors, if the Galactica and her fleet were ever in this system, there should be traces of them on one of those two planets. Inform Commander Willis on the Victory he has the CAP."

Commander Turner sat down in his command chair just off to the side of the operations table. Now it was a waiting game as they waited for information from the survey raptors. Both Battlestars were operating in full stealth mode. Unless a ship jumped in right on top of them, their detection was unlikely. The CAP vipers were also specially shielded to make detection minimal. Each Battlestar had four such shielded vipers.

"Picking up a very large asteroid field," Lieutenant Edmondson reported as more information came in from her scans. "Sir, my long range sensors are showing a major Tylium deposit on one of the asteroids!"

"Tylium!" Commander Turner spoke surprised rising and stepping over to the operations table, where the survey data on the system was being displayed. A blinking red circle in the asteroid field designated the location of the Tylium. The asteroid field was located between the fifth and sixth planets, the sixth planet being an unusually large gas giant. He knew that a large Tylium source could definitely have drawn the Galactic to this system. Maybe their luck was finally changing.

Major Burns, instruct Commander Willis to send four of his survey raptors to that Tylium source," Commander Turner ordered studying the information being displayed on the operations table. "Tell his pilots to use extreme caution on their approach. If the Galactica needed Tylium, this might be where she got it!"

"Sir, if my scans are correct, this is a huge Tylium deposit!" Lieutenant Edmondson continued, looking intently at the data being displayed on her screen. She double checked the figures and then looked back at the commander. "I don't think I've ever seen one this large on an asteroid before, not even in the Caspian system!"

Commander Turner nodded. They were so far out from the Colonies that mining this Tylium would be impractical. But they could do a complete survey, and if they ever had to have it, they would know what's here. He was highly curious to see if the Galactica had beat them to it. He hoped so; it would be their first trace of the old Battlestar.

Captain Samuel Brett was in survey raptor six and in charge of the four-raptor group assigned to check out the Tylium deposit. "All raptors set your FTL computers to bring us out of jump ten thousand kilometers from target," he ordered over the com system as his fingers ran smoothly over the controls. "Full stealth mode upon system stabilization after the jump. I want to run some long range sensor scans before we close on the target asteroid."

"FTL spun up and ready to jump," Lieutenant Jenny Albright reported from her copilot seat. "I hope there is some trace of the Galactica there!"

"It's possible," Captain Brett replied nodding. "A Tylium source this large would have been impossible to pass up."

"Stealth and sensor systems are ready sir," Ensign Dwight Higgins reported from his position directly behind the two pilots.

"All raptors report ready to jump," Lieutenant Albright confirmed.

"Very well," Captain Brett replied, then over the squadron com. "All raptors jump on my mark. 3, 2, 1, mark!"

All four-survey raptors vanished in blue white flashes.

Captain Brett felt the normal queasiness associated with a jump as the raptor reappeared at the designated coordinates. He looked quickly at the Dradis screen as the raptor's systems came back on line. He wanted very badly to see humans down on this asteroid, they all did.

"Stealth systems activated," Ensign Higgins reported. "Beginning long range scans of the asteroid."

"All other raptors report normal jumps," Lieutenant Albright reported. "Waiting on our approval to move in for close scans of target." She looked over at Captain Brett with growing excitement. Surely if the Galactica had passed through this area, they would have found this Tylium source. Lieutenant Albright was positive they were about to finally find a trace of the Galactica and her rag tag fleet.

"Frak!" Lieutenant Higgins said suddenly with surprise spreading across his face. "I'm detecting mining operations on the asteroid!"

"What!" Captain Brett exclaimed turning around and staring at the ensign. "Double check your sensors; we aren't detecting any ships in the area. How can there be a mining operation? Is it the Galactica?"

"It has to be," Lieutenant Albright spoke her eyes wide. "We finally found them!"

Ensign Higgins studied his screens for a few more moments, reading the data the sensors were downloading. "It's definitely a mining operation and a pretty big one. There are no ships on Dradis."

"Why the frak didn't the Silent Seeker pick up the power emissions?" Captain Brett demanded with an uneasy feeling. "She should have with the power a mining operation puts out!"

"The Tylium might have masked them sir," Lieutenant Albright commented looking over at Captain Brett. "It could have caused interference with the scans."

Captain Brett was silent for a moment mulling over what needed to be done next. "Raptor 4, you are to jump back to the Victory and inform Commander Willis what we have found and request additional orders, all other raptors will stay in this location with all stealth systems activated," he ordered over the raptors secure ship-to-ship communication system.

A few moments later raptor 4 jumped away in a blue white flash of light.

It was twenty minutes later when the Independence and Victory both jumped into close proximity to the asteroid. As soon as their systems stabilized viper squadrons began launching and taking up defensive positions around the two Battlestars.

"I want full scans of that asteroid!" Commander Turner ordered hoping that finally they had found a clue as to the Galactica's location. He couldn't imagine who else would be mining this Tylium. With the fleet the Galactica was protecting, they would have to stop periodically to mine Tylium for fuel. He felt there was a reasonable chance they had finally found them, which was why he had jumped the Battlestars in so close. He wanted to contact the humans on the asteroid as soon as possible.

On the Battlestar's main view screen, the large asteroid appeared. The asteroid was pock marked with old asteroid strikes. Lieutenant Edmondson adjusted the screen and increased the magnification zooming in on one of the mining operations her sensors were now picking up.

"That's not a human operation!" Major Burns spoke his eyes growing wide at what was on the screen. He watched in shock as large robotic machines moved back and forth across the surface of the asteroid going between the mining operations.

"Sensors are showing twenty different mining operations on the asteroid," Lieutenant Edmondson reported studying her data screen.

Commander Turner was silent as he studied the screen. He felt extremely disappointed. He had been so sure they had finally found the Galactica. Looking at the robotic machines on the surface, he knew they weren't Cylon either. Could they have found another sentient race of beings, if so, where were they? He looked over at a secondary view screen and noticed a series of large buildings and something he couldn't identify lying between them. "Expand that area where those building are!"

The screen expanded and suddenly an alien freighter or tanker appeared on the screen. A number of large hoses connected the ship to several of the buildings.

"A Tylium tanker," Major Burns said gazing intently at the screen. "Those buildings must be processing centers for raw Tylium. The finished product is being loaded aboard that ship."

"Frak!" a frightened and stunned voice spoke from behind Commander Turner. Turning Commander Turner saw the young Kobolan systems engineer assigned to the Independence looking in shock and fear at the screen. "That's an Ovion mining operation sir; we need to get out of here!"

"Ovion!" Major Burns repeated his face taking on a sudden look of worry. "Where did they come from? We're hundreds of light years from where their system was!"

"It doesn't matter," Commander Turner spoke looking over at his executive officer. "We didn't come out here to fight the Ovions. We need to get this information back to Admiral Reed. Bring all of our birds home, combat landings authorized. Contact all survey raptors in the system and order them to jump back to the Rycon's location. I want us out of here yesterday! We jumped in too fraking close to the asteroid. Their sensors might have detected us! Damn, I should have known better! Admiral Reed will have my ass for this screw up!"

Six minutes later, the Independence and Victory jumped reappearing back in the system where Admiral Reed and the Rycon waited. Commander Turner immediately contacted Admiral Reed. He needed to be told about the Ovions!

Down on the Ovion asteroid, surveillance systems had recorded what appeared to be two large warships appearing in orbit as well as a multitude of smaller craft. The Ovion operations computer recorded all the data and sent out a subspace message with the data packet included. Once that was complete, the partially sentient computer went back to focusing on the mining operation it had operated for the last twenty years.

"Ovions!" Admiral Reed spoke in surprise his eyes widening listening to the report from Commander Turner over his mini com. "Where the frak did Ovions come from way out here?"

"It was only a mining operation Admiral," Commander Turner replied defensively. "But from the scans we were able to take it's been there a long time!"

"Did they detect your ships?" Admiral Reed asked worriedly. He had no desire to tangle with an Ovion battle group. Commander Turner had screwed up; Admiral Reed just hoped there were no Ovion warships nearby.

"I don't know sir; we jumped in pretty close to the asteroid," Commander Turner confessed. "We thought it might have been a mining operation set up by the Galactica."

"It's possible we may have an Ovion colony in the neighborhood," Commander Stramm commented with a worried look. "Perhaps the Ovion home world put a colony out here centuries ago, after they destroyed the New Kobol system."

"Is that possible?" Admiral Reed said turning and looking at Major Streen. Major Streen was the Kobolan liaison officer assigned to the Battlestar Group to monitor the use of the Kobolan technology built into the Colonial ships.

"Anything's possible," Major Streen replied looking at the main view screen, which was showing a view of the Ovion mining operation. It was of the main buildings and the tanker on the landing pad being loaded with Tylium. "As you know, for the last several years we've been detecting Ovion warships in systems around the destroyed Ovion home world as well as in the New Kobol system. They have to be coming from somewhere, but this is a long way from either of those systems."

"So we may be dealing with another Ovion colony different from the one that Terra has been searching for," Admiral Reed commented not liking where this was going.

Terra had been searching for the surviving Ovion warships that had escaped the destruction of their home world. The Terrans felt there was a good possibility that the Ovions had set up a small colony somewhere prior to their home world being destroyed and were using it for a base of operations.

"If this is a long established colony, and from the size of that mining operation it very well may be, there could be more than one Ovion world nearby," Commander Stramm stated nervously looking toward the Dradis making sure it still showed only Colonial ships.

"As far out as we are, I can't imagine that the Ovion ships we have been detecting back home came from here," Major Streen said with a worried look. "We have to assume this is a different group of Ovions."

"We need to get this information back to Terra," Major Streen spoke still gazing at the screen. "We're over twelve hundred light years from New Kobol and the old Ovion home world. We need to have Terra send out some of our newer stealth ships to investigate this!"

"If the Galactica and her fleet came this way, they wouldn't have stood a chance against Ovion Dreadnaughts and Battle Cruisers!" Commander Turner spoke listening to the conversation over his mini com. "The same would go for the Cylons if there is a major Ovion colony or colonies nearby."

Admiral Reed thought for a moment. They had just begun their third search for the Galactica and her fleet. He hated giving up so quickly. "I want all ships to stay at condition two for the immediate future. We need more information about these Ovions before we go running back to the Colonies."

Commander Stramm was silent for a moment. He didn't like the idea of tangling with Ovion Dreadnaughts. Even with Kobolan technology augmenting Colonial technology, those mother's were just too powerful. "Sir if the Ovions show up, what are your orders?''

"We run," Admiral Reed replied in a low voice, his eyes narrowing. "We run like hell and get the frak out of here!"

…

For the next two days, Admiral Reed was in almost constant communication with Colonel Stahl Greenview. Colonel Greenview was the Commander of the Silent Seeker. The Silent Seeker was constantly surveying all the systems within ten light years for any unusual energy readings. Now that they knew what to look for, the Ovion mining colony was being kept under constant surveillance.

"From our subspace FTL detection sensors, there are two Ovion tankers each day arriving and leaving that asteroid," Colonel Greenview reported.

The subspace FTL sensors were a Kobolan system, which had been installed on the Silent Seeker. Colonel Greenview knew that the sensors were based on the technology used in the Kobolan FTL sensor buoys.

"That's a lot of Tylium," Admiral Reed spoke wondering where it was all going.

"We may have discovered another mining site in a system seven light years from us, like the other it's hard to tell from the scans," Greenview continued.

"I'll send a stealth raptor out to investigate," Admiral Reed replied. If it were another mining site, then this would indicate there had to be Ovion colonies somewhere close by. "We may want to consider deploying some Kobolan FTL sensor buoys in the surrounding systems to increase our detection range."

Admiral Reed could hear someone speaking to Colonel Greenview frantically in the background. Admiral Reed had a sudden feeling he wasn't going to like what he heard next.

"Admiral, we are picking up a number of FTL signatures in two of the designated G type star systems that we located earlier," Greenview reported worriedly. "The signatures are large, and the Kobolan officer we have assigned over here, she says they look like Ovion Dreadnaught FTL signatures sir!"

"It's a search pattern," Admiral Reed said over the mini com. "They must have detected our Battlestars over the Tylium asteroid. I'm recalling all the stealth raptors we have out, and then we're jumping for home. Our stay here is about to get a little warm I'm afraid." Admiral Reed just hoped he had time to get all of the out system raptors back.

"Captain Billings, send out a subspace recall to all of our stealth surveillance raptors to return home ASAP," Admiral Reed ordered. "Tell them we expect Ovion Dreadnaughts to make an appearance here shortly."

"All ships this is Admiral Reed," he said over the fleet com line. "The Silent Seeker has detected what appears to be Ovion Dreadnaughts in two of the four G type star systems we detected earlier. In my opinion, they are running a search pattern. They are looking for us! As soon as all surveillance raptors have returned, we will be jumping for home. All ships are to go to condition one and spin up your FTL drives!"

"Commander Stramm, double the size of the CAP and have our squadrons on standby," Admiral Reed ordered studying the tactical data being displayed on the operations table. "If necessary, we will cover the rest of the Battle Groups withdrawal."

"Yes sir," Commander Stramm replied. Commander Stramm hoped that the raptors made it back in time. Tapping his mini com, he ordered the CAP doubled and blue and green scorpion squadrons to be loaded into the launch tubes. Red and orange squadrons would be on standby.

Two hours passed, and all the surveillance raptors except one had made it back. Admiral Reed breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the last raptor jump in just short of the fleet. We might get away clean, he thought. He had watched so many people die in the Cylon war, he didn't know if he was prepared to lose more now.

A sudden warning alarm went off on the Dradis startling him and drawing his eyes to the Dradis screen above the operations table. Six deadly red blips came into being.

"Six Ovion Dreadnaughts detected sir!" Captain Bennett reported instantly; he had been on the lookout for exactly this type of Dradis signature. There was no mistaking an Ovion Dreadnaught!

"Have they detected us," Commander Stramm demanded looking over at Captain Bennett. All ships were running in full stealth mode, and the Ovions were over twelve million kilometers away.

"I don't think so sir," Captain Bennett replied breathing a sigh of relief as he read the data on his screens. "They're beginning to run a standard search pattern and are launching fighters for a CAP sir."

"As soon as that raptor completes its landing, we jump," Admiral Reed ordered looking down at the operations table and studying the new tactical information being displayed. He still might be able to get the fleet away safely.

It was at that moment the unthinkable happened, the inbound raptor's stealth systems failed. The raptor suddenly became a blinding signal on the Dradis screen.

"Sir, the raptor just showed up on Dradis," Captain Bennett warned his eyes widening. "Its stealth systems must have been switched off!"

"What the frak happened," Commander Stramm demanded whirling around and looking at Captain Billings. "Contact that raptor and see why they dropped their stealth systems! Tell them to get them back up immediately!"

"To late sir! The Ovions have detected the raptor. They are landing their fighters; and I believe they are spinning up their jump drives," Captain Bennett reported as he leaned forwards and adjusted several controls on his console. He could feel tension building in his stomach. This situation was about to go south very quickly.

"Get that raptor in, launch our squadrons!" Admiral Reed ordered as he looked at the tactical data. "All ships except the Rycon are to jump to the standby coordinates now!" At least he could get the other ships to safety; he had to stay and land the last raptor. What the frak was that pilot thinking about. Reed still couldn't believe the pilot had turned off his stealth systems!

On the main Dradis screen, the friendly green icons began to vanish rapidly until only the Rycon remained. Then the red Ovion icons vanished to reappear around the Rycon.

"The Ovions are here!" Captain Bennett reported with wide eyes. He had never seen combat before. "They're launching fighters!"

"Activate energy screen," Admiral Reed ordered. He knew that once the energy screen was activated the Ovions would be able to lock onto the Rycon with their weapons. But the Kobolan energy screen was their best defense against Ovion nukes.

"Sir, the raptor is reporting partial power failure. They had to turn off their stealth systems, so they would have enough power to land," Captain Billing reported. She could feel her heart beating faster. She looked over at Angela, and their eyes met. Angela gave a reassuring nod.

Major Simms rolled his viper to avoid an interceptor missile launched by an Ovion fighter. Turning sharply, a move that would have been impossible without the new Kobolan inertia compensators, he locked his thirty-millimeter cannons on an Ovion fighter. Squeezing the trigger, the shells tore into the fighter shredding it. Checking his Dradis, he saw that both squadrons were heavily engaged and seemed to be holding their own.

"Stay with your wingman!" Major Simms ordered over the squadron's com system. "Don't get separated. Do as you were taught!"

He could hear the excited chatter as his pilots fought their vipers dodging Ovion missiles, and returning fire when they locked onto an Ovion fighter. These Ovion fighters were slightly smaller than a viper with wider wings. Evidently they were designed to hold more missiles.

"Vipers are engaged with the Ovion fighters," Commander Stramm reported as he listened to the squadron leaders on his mini com. "Red and Orange squadrons are loaded in the tubes and ready to launch!"

"Hold the launch," Admiral Reed ordered as the raptor entered the starboard landing bay. "Order our vipers back, combat landing authorized. We're getting out of here!"

"Ovion missile launch!" Captain Bennett spoke loudly from his Dradis console as an alarm went off. "Twenty missiles inbound!" Another warning alarm suddenly sounded and Captain Bennett checked the data on his terminal quickly. "All the missiles are nukes sir!"

"Activate defense grid!" Commander Stramm ordered as his eyes went to the Dradis, which showed twenty inbound threat icons. The damn Ovions went in for nukes in a big way. From what they had learned from the Terrans, most of the Ovion nukes were big and nasty.

On the hull of the Rycon, two hundred twin defensive turrets and forty defensive laser turrets began tracking the inbound missiles. In moments, they opened fire as they locked onto their targets.

Six of the missiles were destroyed in the first barrage from the defensive turrets, and the laser turrets destroyed eight more. Then all turrets went into automatic fire putting up a curtain of exploding shrapnel and laser beams around the Rycon. Five more missiles exploded just short of the Battlestar. The last missile penetrated and struck the ship's powerful energy screen. The missile detonated, and for just a moment, the Rycon disappeared in a brilliant flash as nuclear fire washed over the screen. Then the Rycon reappeared unharmed.

"Last viper is aboard," Commander Stramm reported as he checked the damage control board. Other than a few short circuits, the ship was unharmed. Between the energy screen and the new improved armor the ship had suffered very little damage other then several scorch marks to its outer hull.

"Jump us!" Admiral Reed ordered. Even with the energy screen and the Rycon's new weapon systems they couldn't stand up to six Ovion Dreadnaughts.

The navigation officer obeyed and turned the jump key. The Rycon vanished just as the Ovion Dreadnaughts launched a larger wave of nuclear missiles.

The Rycon reappeared at the standby jump coordinates where the rest of the fleet waited.

"Damage report," Admiral Reed demanded looking over at Commander Stramm.

"Very minor sir," Stramm reported with a relieved look on his face. "We were lucky. They must have underestimated our defensive fire power or they would have launched a larger spread of missiles."

Admiral Reed was silent for a moment. The Ovions were a long way from the Colonies and were probably not a threat. He knew that Terra would want to know everything about their encounter. They had gotten some pretty decent scans of the Ovion ships, which should be useful. He just hoped they hadn't started another war!

"Plot a series of jumps toward these coordinates," Admiral Reed ordered calling up a star chart on the operations table. "We will take a longer route home so if the Ovions try to track us, they won't know where we're going. Once we reach these coordinates," he said pointing to a star system on the map, "we will return to the Colonies."

"Yes sir," Commander Stramm replied. This would add six jumps to the return trip. He didn't like the idea of calling the search off, but he knew they had no other choice.

They were going home; the search for the Galactica would have to be put on hold temporarily. Admiral Reed looked at the main view screen, which showed a number of brilliant stars. Somewhere out there, the Galactica and Adama waited; he was sure of that! We will find you Adama, Reed swore to himself. He had met Commander Adama on several occasions and had even served with him briefly on the Valkyrie. He knew in his soul that Commander Adama would have found a way to survive!

**Check out my profile for information on a new project I am considering!**

_Author's note: I always thought the Battlestars on Battlestar Galactica the new series were ridiculously low tech. A culture that had space travel on and off for several centuries should have had a much higher tech base, even with the threat of the Cylons. In the original Battlestar Galactica series, the Galactica was the most powerful of the fleet's Battlestars, had heavy laser weapons, defensive turbo laser turrets, and some force field technology._

_I wanted to give the current ships better tech, so I introduced the Kobolans in Gunstar Titania. A group from Kobol that had kept and developed a higher tech base than what was available in the Colonies. This way I could introduce an energy screen, some laser technology, improved computer technology, and other improvements. The Pulse Laser concept was introduced in the original Battlestar Galactica series and was developed on an Ice Planet by professor Ravashol. _

**Jupiter Class Battlestars** (Hyperion, Prometheus, Rycon, and Pacifica)

Length: 1,600 meters

Width: 450 meters

Height: 400 meters

Crew: 1,500

Marines: 250

200 Rapid firing twin defensive turrets

40 Twin defensive laser turrets

4 Heavy bow KEW batteries

8 Quad pulse laser batteries mounted on the upper hull

10 Medium twin KEW turrets on the upper hull

24 Dual batteries capable of firing shells or missiles. Twelve on each side of the hull

8 Medium twin KEW turrets on the lower hull

6 Bow missile tubes

16 Missile tubes. 8 each on the starboard and port sides of the ship

160 Mark Eight Vipers (upgraded version of the Mark Seven with several Kobolan tech improvements.) Better sensors, more efficient engines, basic inertia dampening system.

20 Raptors

Energy Screen

Stealth Technology

**Valkyrie Class Battlestars** (Victory, Independence, Dark Search, Shrike, and Caprica)

Length 1,200 meters

Width 400 meters

Height 225 meters

Crew 800

Marines 200

140 Twin rapid fire point defense turrets

30 Twin defensive laser turrets

4 Heavy KEW bow batteries

4 Quad pulse laser batteries on the upper hull

20 Dual batteries capable of firing shells or missiles

8 Medium KEW twin turrets on the upper hull

6 Medium KEW twin turrets on the lower hull

4 Bow missile tubes

6 Missile tubes along the hull on both the starboard and port sides

80 Mark Eight Vipers

12 Raptors 4 Stealth Raptors

21


	2. Chapter 2

The Kobolan Battle Cruiser Zeus slid silently through space hugging the edge of the small gaseous nebula she was using to hide her from detection. The Battle Cruisers Hera and Apollo flanked her on both sides with the Jupiter Class Battlestar Hyperion following close behind. Six Kobolan Heavy Escorts moved stealthily in formation keeping a precalculated defensive position around the four larger ships. All ten ships had their stealth fields fully activated and were running in full stealth mode. They were on a search and destroy mission.

Rear Admiral Mase Landers was watching one of the large sensor screens on the front wall of the CIC intently. The screen showed the twenty nearest star systems, all of which contained several Kobolan FTL sensor buoys. For six weeks, his battle group had been following a group of five Ovion warships. From the sensor readings, the Ovion battle group consisted of two Dreadnaughts and three Heavy Cruisers. Admiral Landers could feel the tension in the CIC. If their surveillance data from recent weeks was correct, they should be making contact with their targets at any moment.

"Sensor buoy in system X-29 shows five FTL signatures," science specialist Denise Anthon reported as a warning signal appeared on one of her computer screens.

Denise was sitting at a large computer console with two other computer and sensor technicians just to Admiral Lander's right. She had been instrumental in redesigning the sensor buoys to give more detailed information and more real time data. Currently she had all the sensor buoys in the nearest twenty star systems tied into her console, and the information was being displayed on the main CIC sensor screen.

"All five FTL signatures are Ovion and conform to the battle group we have been following," Denise continued as she studied the data flashing across her screens. She let out a long held breath. She knew they would soon be going into combat. Just the thought made her feel uneasy. She was a science specialist and combat made her nervous. She felt more at ease in her large lab back on Terra with her father. But Admiral Landers had requested her presence for this mission.

"Distance?" Admiral Landers asked as he studied the main sensor screen, which now displayed one of the target stars blinking red.

"4.7 light years," Denise replied looking over at one of her assistants who had that piece of information up on her screen. "If they follow their normal pattern, it will be at least forty minutes before they jump out."

"They're in FTL jump range," Major Don Streth commented with raised eyebrows. "We can take them!"

For weeks, they had been tracking this group of Ovion warships ships, but each time they had managed to locate them, the distance had been too great for an accurate FTL combat jump. Each time the Ovions had jumped away before the Zeus's battle group could get close enough. This Ovion battle group had been snooping around New Kobal and the former Ovion home world for quite some time. Now it was time to bring their spying to an end.

"Do we have the precise coordinates we need to plot an accurate combat jump?" Landers asked Denise with determined eyes. He wanted to eliminate this threat to New Kobol and the former colony systems around it. As with everyone else from Terra, they all shared a hatred of the Ovions, for the terror they had brought on the New Kobol system and her colonies. Admiral Landers had been instrumental in causing the Ovion home world to be destroyed. He could still remember the Cylon attack and the planet exploding when its massive Tylium veins of ore had ignited from the Cylon bombardment.

Currently an extremely large archeological expedition was busy on New Kobol. They were trying to recover artifacts and other valuable documents that had been left behind when the surviving humans had fled over five hundred years ago. There were over ten thousand Kobolans and Colonials on New Kobol currently. Two additional Battle Cruisers, Four Heavy Escorts, and a Titan Class Gunstar currently were responsible for the planet's security. In addition, a small planetary defense grid had been put in place. While it didn't compare to the massive grids at Terra or Demeter, it was a beginning. Plans called for the New Kobol defense grid to be massively expanded and for the eventual recolonization of New Kobol. There was also a small highly trained military garrison on the planet, ensuring the security of the excavation teams and other scientific groups that were active on the surface.

New Kobol would eventually be a stopping off point for freighters and other ships traveling between the Twelve Colonies and Demeter and Terra. The future for New Kobol looked extremely bright if they could eliminate the remaining Ovion threat.

Denise was busy running some calculations across her computer console. Her fingers flew rapidly across the touch screen until she was satisfied with the results the calculations yielded. "Yes sir," she replied trying to sound calm. "I am transferring the coordinates to navigation."

Admiral Landers activated the short range fleet COM system. "All ships go to condition one and prepare for combat. We will be jumping into combat range of the Ovion battle group shortly. You all know the mission parameters; stay focused and let's eliminate this threat to New Kobol. Jump in two minutes!"

Landers stood quietly looking around at the crew. They were all highly trained. With the addition of Denise Anthon, one of the premier scientists from Terra, her father was the planet's leading scientist; he had a scientific expert on board he could depend on. He shuddered to think what would happen to his career if something happened to her.

All three of his Battle Cruisers, as well as the Hyperion, had the most recent technical advances from Terra as well as the Colonies. Professor Ravashol had gone to Terra and had been working with Terran laser and power scientists. They had perfected the new pulse laser cannons and heavy laser batteries the Kobolan ships were currently equipped with. The new heavy lasers could cut through the heaviest armor, even though it took them awhile to penetrate an energy screen. The pulse laser cannons were virtually unstoppable. They now had the power to smash through an Ovion energy screen with impunity.

The Ovions had been a problem since the destruction of their world over five years ago. A number of warships had escaped the destruction, and over the intervening years, it had become obvious that there had to be a small Ovion colony somewhere. So far, Terra had not been able to locate it, even though occasional Ovion warships were still making appearances in New Kobol space. Terra wasn't sure if they were looking for revenge for the destruction of their planet, of if they were just keeping a close watch on human activity in the New Kobol system. Whatever the reason, Admiral Landers had orders to destroy this Ovion battle group.

The navigation officer reported that all ships had the coordinates entered in their FTL computers and were ready to jump.

"Very well," Admiral Landers replied nodding at Major Streth, then activating the fleet COM system. "All ships stand by to jump. All FTL computers are tied in to the Zeus's computer system. We will jump on my mark. Stand by, 3-2-1- Mark!"

Admiral Landers felt the normal queasiness associated with a jump. Fortunately, Kobolan FTL jump drives were much better tuned than Colonial drives and the queasiness was minimal.

The ten ships came out of FTL in optimum combat range of the five Ovion warships.

"Hyperion is launching her vipers," Major Streth reported as soon as the Zeus's systems had stabilized. He could feel the adrenalin pumping through his body knowing the Zeus would shortly be engaged in combat. This would be his first actual taste of combat as an executive officer.

On one of the main view screens, the image of the 1,600 meter Battlestar Hyperion floated. From her launch tubes, vipers were blasting into space forming up into their squadrons and taking up their defensive positions around the fleet. They would engage any Ovion fighters that might threaten the fleet. The Battlestar's massive point defense system of 200 twin flak batteries were active and ready to put up an impenetrable wall of flak if necessary. Her forty twin defensive laser turrets were also activated and ready to shoot down any incoming missile or fighter. Her heavier guns were also powered up and ready to assist the Kobolan Battle Cruisers if necessary. She was a deadly giant waiting for the kill.

Another view screen showed an Ovion Heavy Cruiser; the 1,100 meter ship was dumbbell shaped and bristled with gun turrets and numerous missile tubes. It was already launching fighters. An Ovion Heavy Cruiser normally carried a fighter complement of sixteen to twenty small fighters. Another view screen showed an Ovion Dreadnaught. The Ovion Dreadnaught was literally covered in weapon emplacements and was 1,500 hundred meters in length. It too was launching fighters; a normal Dreadnaught held forty fighters.

"Go to defense formation Delta and prepare to engage our heavy KEW batteries," Admiral Landers ordered with narrowed eyes as he watched the Ovion ships slew around to face the approaching human warships. It had been several years since he had engaged an Ovion warship, most of his crew and the crews of the other Kobolan warships had experienced very little actual combat either, except in the simulators.

"Hera and Apollo report target lock," Major Streth reported listening to the ships in the fleet over his mini com. "They are asking for permission to fire."

"Inform our escorts their primary job will be intercepting all inbound Ovion missiles" Landers ordered. "I don't want any nukes getting through. The Hyperion will stay in reserve and handle enemy fighter suppression with her fighters."

On all three Kobolan Battle Cruisers, their heavy bow KEW batteries were locked on the Ovion ships.

"Fire!" Admiral Landers ordered his eyes glued to the main view screens.

Instantly the Zeus's six main bow KEWs opened up, firing massive rounds at nearly fifteen percent of the speed of light at the Ovion Dreadnaught she had targeted. The massive rounds covered the forty kilometers between them and the Ovion Dreadnaught in a matter of a micro second. Brilliant yellowish red explosions could be seen around the Ovion ship as the rounds struck the Ovion energy screen.

"The Dreadnaughts energy screen is stopping the majority of our rounds," Denise reported as she studied her sensor screens. "Only four percent of our rounds are penetrating. The rest are being stopped twenty meters from their hull."

"Frak!" Major Streth oathed glaring at the screen in surprise. "Those energy screens are better than we expected, we should be getting more of our rounds through."

"They've evidently improved them," Admiral Landers replied. This was unexpected. The Ovions normally were extremely slow to advance or change their technology. If they had improved their screens, that would be an indication of a large and flourishing colony somewhere. A colony willing to advance Ovion technology more rapidly than the home world had.

"All ships are reporting the same," Major Streth continued. "Most of our KEW rounds are being stopped by the energy screens."

"Fire our secondary KEW batteries," Admiral Landers ordered as he studied the data being displayed on his personal command screen. "Let them think we can't hurt them; we don't want them jumping out."

From the Zeus, 32 twin medium KEW turrets began adding their fire to the heavy KEW batteries. More explosion dotted space around the Ovion Dreadnaught. The other Kobolan cruisers increased the intensity of their attacks upon their own targets.

The Zeus's own energy screen was now showing explosions as Ovion KEW rounds impacted. The Ovion rounds were slightly smaller but more numerous than what the Zeus was putting out. In some areas, the screen seemed to be alive with continuous explosions. The explosions were being caused by the impact of the heavy rounds on the energy screen, causing the rounds to be vaporized from the energy being generated upon contact.

Aboard the Ovion ships, their Commanders noted that the majority of the Kobolan weapons were being stopped by their energy screens. It was decided to destroy this human task force as an abject lesson to the humans. A combination of their KEW batteries and missiles should finish off this human pest.

"Vampire, Vampire," Lieutenant Adam Brett spoke loudly from his position at tactical. "Ovions are launching missiles." Another warning alarm sounded drawing Brett's attention to it. "Sixty eight missiles launched, forty two are nukes. I repeat; forty two are nukes."

"Escorts are activating their defensive laser batteries," Major Streth reported as he gazed intently at one of the screens, which showed the inbound missiles. "Apollo and Hera are doing the same. Our own are already firing."

From the human ships, wicked beams of reddish yellow light flicked out striking the Ovion missiles. Missile after missile exploded as the laser beams destroyed the delicate electronic controls of the missiles then detonated their fuel load. Bright balls of flame dotted space where the missiles died.

The defending vipers were in a vicious dog fight with the Ovion fighter squadrons. There were over one hundred and twenty Ovion fighters engaging one hundred and forty human vipers. The vipers swerved and gyrated, dodging Ovion interceptor missiles and cannon fire. Small fireballs spread through the formation of human vipers and Ovion fighters as missiles and cannon fire found targets. The Ovion fighters were being rapidly decimated, but not without losses to the Colonials. For every three Ovion fighters blasted out of space, a Colonial viper paid the ultimate price.

"Lock on targets with Pulse Lasers," Admiral Landers ordered looking over at Major Streth. "Let's find out just how strong their energy screens actually are. Pulse laser turrets are authorized to fire at the same time. Also, load Conqueror missiles in all bow tubes. I want a follow up missile strike on the target immediately after we hit them with our pulse lasers."

It took just a few moments for Major Streth to pass on the orders and coordinate with the other ships. He looked at the main view screen, which was focused on the Ovion Dreadnaught they were targeting. He couldn't wait to see the effect of the Pulse Lasers on the Ovion Dreadnaught. His breathing had quickened, and his pulse was racing.

The Zeus, Hera, and Apollo all locked their heavy pulse laser cannons on their chosen targets. Each ship had two main pulse cannons as well as ten lighter twin pulse laser turrets, all courtesy of the research perfected by professor Ravashol and the Kobolan scientists and technicians he had worked with.

From each ship, two brilliant yellow-white beams reached out striking the Ovion warships. On the lead Dreadnaught, the two beams cut right through the energy screen melting the defensive armor on the hull and cutting deep into the ship. A massive explosion blew a substantial portion of the hull outward leaving a jagged hole in the ship's outer hull. The smaller beams also tore through the Ovion energy screen playing across the hull and melting jagged rents wherever they touched exposing interior compartments to vacuum. Small explosions spread across the Ovion ship, as it was staggered by the sudden attack.

Six Conqueror missiles blasted away from the Zeus. The Ovion defensive batteries fired, but too many had been destroyed or damaged from the pulse lasers. Two of the missiles detonated on impact with the Ovion energy screen. Their ten-megaton payloads instantly overloading the screen knocking it down. Two of the remaining four missiles were destroyed by Ovion defensive fire, but the other two missiles came through and struck the heavily damaged Ovion Dreadnaught. Two massive nuclear explosions rolled across the Ovion ship, melting the hull and sending a brilliant yellowish red fireball of nuclear flame deep into the stricken ship. The Ovion Dreadnaught exploded in a huge reddish orange blast as her Tylium bunkers were compromised and then detonated from the intense heat of the nukes.

The other Ovion Dreadnaught also vanished under withering pulse laser fire from the Apollo and a follow up nuclear barrage. One of the Ovion Heavy Cruisers also was shattered as the Hera blew it apart.

"Remaining Ovion Heavy Cruisers are jumping out," Major Streth reported breathlessly as the two remaining Ovion ships vanished from the screens. "The Hyperion is moving up to recover her fighters; all the Ovion fighters have been destroyed."

"Battle damage?" Admiral Landers asked looking over at the damage control officer. The battle had lasted less then sixteen minutes from start to finish.

"Minimal," the young lieutenant reported. "A few short circuits in a few of the outer sections of the ship nearest the hull, and that's it."

"All other ships are reporting minor damage also," Major Streth reported as the reports came in on his mini-com. "They seem to have concentrated their fire on our three cruisers and ignored the escorts. I think our new pulse lasers took them by surprise. It might be quite some time before the Ovions come back snooping in our neighborhood again."

"Let's hope so," Admiral Landers replied with a satisfied look on his face. "As soon as the Hyperion has recovered all of her fighters, plot a course back to New Kobol."

**NEW KOBOL **

Two days later, the Zeus's battle group slid smoothly into orbit around New Kobol. Admiral Landers gazed at the main view screen looking at the pristine blue-green planet floating beneath the powerful Battle Cruiser. He felt an attachment to the planet below. It was here that the thirteen tribes had settled after leaving Kobol so many years ago. They had built up a highly civilized world with large satellite colonies in a number of adjacent systems. Then had come the war with the Ovions. The tribes had been driven from New Kobol with billions loosing their lives in the holocaust. The few survivors had settled on Terra in the Delphi Quadrant, and had lived peacefully for nearly five hundred years. Then the Colonials under Admiral Stone had turned up, and Terra's isolation had ended.

Now after five hundred years, members of the thirteen tribes had once more returned to New Kobol along with their cousins from the Twelve Colonies.

"Communication from the Battle Cruiser Athena," Lieutenant Jasmine Jones reported from her post at the communications console. "They have a priority encrypted message packet for you from Admiral Crius."

"I wonder what that's about." Major Streth commented raising his eyebrows. "We haven't even submitted our action report yet."

"Transfer the message to the console in my quarters," Admiral Landers ordered also wondering just what was going on. He hadn't spoken to Admiral Crius for several months. Not since he had talked him into assigning science specialist Denise Anthon to the Zeus. They had discussed it over dinner, and it had cost Admiral Landers a fifty year old bottle of ambrosia, plus swearing he would return her safely.

Admiral Crius was currently the commanding Admiral of the entire Kobolan fleet at Terra. The Kobolan fleet currently consisted of thirty Battle Cruisers and forty eight Heavy Escorts with more ships under construction. Current plans called for the Kobolan fleet to be expanded to forty Battle cruisers and sixty Heavy Escorts. This was the maximum size fleet that Terra could support without bankrupting the economy. Even so, it would be putting a strain on planetary resources. But with Ovion warships snooping about and the unknown whereabouts of the remaining Cylon fleet units; it was necessary to build the fleet up to its maximum possible size. They had also substantially strengthened the defense grids around both Terra and Demeter.

Admiral Landers went to his quarters after leaving Major Streth in charge of the CIC. Sitting down behind a large wood desk, he activated the computer console on the right hand side. The screen demanded he enter his access code, which he did and then the message from Admiral Crius began to appear after being decrypted.

"Frak," he muttered after reading the message in shock. He activated his com unit and ordered Major Streth and Denise Anthon to come to his quarters.

Leaning back in the large, comfortable desk chair, he gazed at the walls of his small office deep in thought. The walls were covered with paintings and photographs from Terra. Some of the scenes were of snow covered mountains, where Landers loved to go skiing during his leave time. There were other scenes of Terra's oceans, cities, and even the stars as seen from his small home in a country suburb outside the capital city of Terrania. A home he had seen very seldom recently. With his promotion to Rear Admiral, his duties and responsibilities had significantly expanded. He let out a long held breath as Major Streth and Specialist Anthon entered his office.

"What's going on?" Major Streth asked as he and Denise sat down in two of the comfortable chairs in front of the Admiral's desk.

Admiral Landers was quiet for a moment. He was about to land a bombshell upon the two. "Something has occurred back in the Colonies," he began.

"The Cylons, they're back!" Major Streth spoke his eyes widening. "Have they attacked?" Major Streth hadn't gotten to participate in the Cylon war. He had been assigned to a Heavy Escort at the time, which had stayed behind at Terra. He had read and studied in depth Admiral Lander's reports of that deadly conflict.

"No, it's not that," Admiral Landers replied with a slight shake of his head, his eyes focusing on the two. "Two days ago, Admiral Reed returned with his Battle Group."

"So soon," Denise uttered surprised. "They were not due back for another three months. I know, because I helped redesign their sensors and their new FTL detection buoys. Did the equipment not work right? I told my father I should have gone with them. Those are new systems, and while they worked fine in tests, sometimes in actual field conditions things can go wrong."

"No it wasn't that either," Admiral Landers replied, still trying to assimilate the information in the decrypted data packet. "The new systems worked just fine."

Denise had a relieved look on her face after hearing that. She and her father had put a lot of time into designing the new sensor systems and FTL buoys.

"The Rycon and her Battle Group ran into some Ovions," Landers said gazing at the two waiting for their reactions.

"Ovions!" Major Streth breathed, his eyes growing wide in surprise. "Did they find this Ovion colony we have been searching for? Is that our next mission? Have we been assigned to check it out?"

"No," Admiral Landers replied with a look of worry crossing his face. "Admiral Reed believes this is a totally different group of Ovions and very well established with possibly several large colonies. His fleet was attacked by six Ovion Dreadnaughts. Admiral Reed managed to gather a lot of Intel before he was attacked and escaped with his fleet relatively undamaged. He returned to Caprica and made his report of the encounter to Admiral Clements."

"This isn't good," Denise replied thinking about the ramifications. "It brings up the question as to whether the world we thought was the Ovion home world was actually their home planet, or just a rather large colony mining all the Tylium that was there. How far away from the colonies was his Battle Group when they encountered the Ovions?"

"From his report, they encountered the Ovions Dreadnaughts and several large mining installations nearly 1,250 light years from here," Landers replied.

"1,250 light years from here," Denise spoke in shock, her eyes taking on a frightened look. "This has to be a new group of Ovions, I can't believe the ones from, what we assumed was the Ovion home world, could have established colonies that far out."

"Precisely why we are going to Caprica to meet with Admiral Clements," Admiral Landers said. "Specialist Anthon you will be returning on the Battle Cruiser Hera to Terra for a new assignment. What it is I don't know other than it will probably involve these new Ovions. We are going to have to know more, a lot more. They could become a serious threat. This might also explain the new and improved energy screens the Ovion Dreadnaughts and Heavy Cruisers had that we encountered."

"How soon are we to get underway?" Major Streth asked. If these Ovions turned out to be a threat, this could be the beginning of a new war. He just hoped Terra and the Twelve Colonies were ready.

"Immediately, arrange for a shuttle to take Specialist Anthon to the Hera, and then plot a course for Caprica. Maximum FTL jumps are authorized. Admiral Crius wants us to get there as soon as possible." Admiral Landers leaned back in his chair wondering about what the future might hold now. With the Twelve Colonies still trying to recover from the Cylon war, and all the new construction that Terra was involved in, now was not the time to enter into a new and possible dangerous conflict.

Two hours later the Zeus vanished in a blue-white flash as she made her first of many FTL jumps to the Colonies.

**CYLON HOME WORLD **

In space above the Cylon home world a heavily damaged Cylon Basestar suddenly appeared in a flash of blue-white light. Down below the surface in The Hall of Knowledge warning alarms suddenly began to sound. Daniel looked up in surprise at one of the large view screens, which now showed a badly damaged Cylon Basestar floating in orbit where moments before there had been nothing but empty space. One of the Basestars arms was entirely gone and another was heavily damaged.

"It's a Basestar!" Lisa exclaimed rising from her chair and looking in shock at the screen.

"Where did it come from?" Melissa spoke looking over at Daniel in surprise.

"I don't know, but the Colonial Battlestar Tauri is closing," Daniel replied.

Since the end of the war, the Colonials had kept a Battle Group in orbit around the Cylon home world ensuring that the peace between the Cylon remnants and the Twelve Colonies would not be broken. There was also a 1,000 meter Colonial defense station in orbit directly over what remained of the Cylon capital city. The Cylons had been allowed to keep two fully manned Support Ships. Both of these were currently in orbit and were scanning the recently arrived Basestar.

"Admiral Reynolds is demanding that the Basestar surrender or be destroyed," one of the sixes reported from her position at one of the communication consoles.

Another of he sixes manning another of the communication consoles suddenly looked over at Daniel. "I have established communication with the Commander of the Basestar; they want to know what they should do."

"Tell them to stand down," Daniel replied with a frown crossing his face. This was the last thing he had expected to occur today. There had been no sign or contact with any Cylon ships since the end of the Human Cylon War.

"That's one of the Basestars that left with John!" Melissa stated suddenly as she walked over to communications and checked on the Basestar's ID. "Where the frak did they come from and what happened to it?"

"I guess we will find out shortly," Daniel replied. "Contact Admiral Reynolds, and tell him that we have established communication with the Basestar and they are standing down."

In orbit above the Cylon home world, the Cylon Basestar powered down its weapon systems. The Colonial Battlestar Tauri closed to point blank range with her heavy bow KEW batteries targeted on the Basestar's central axis. Two squadrons of vipers took up defensive positions around the Basestar. Everyone had two questions on their mind. Where had the Basestar come from and where was the rest of the Cylon fleet that had left with it?

Go to my profile then check out my website! There will be some information on a possible Battlestar Galactica story line I am considering. This would be a full length novel like Commanstar Aurora. Tell me what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

**Caprica Orbit**

Admiral Clements was in the CIC of the recently completed Caprica Station in orbit around the Colonial home planet of Caprica. While the new station was not as large as the old Caprica Station, it was still very heavily armed. The station was built around the old Nexus shipyard and the Nova shipyard that had been recovered from Virgon. Clements had insisted that the new station be as heavily armed as possible. The new station was eight kilometers across and nearly two deep. A central hub two thousand meters in diameter contained the CIC as well as the other facilities necessary to operate the new station.

The station was armed with six hundred twin defensive flak turrets, two hundred twin defensive laser turrets, forty eight medium twin KEW turrets, twenty four twin heavy pulse laser turrets, sixty offensive missile tubes, and forty eight interceptor missile tubes. In addition, her main launching bays contained two hundred and forty of the new Viper mark 8s, as well as forty raptors.

The new station had six construction bays capable of building anything up to and including a Nova Class Battlestar. In addition, there were four other bays capable of repairing or updating any Colonial warship. Caprica Station was a jewel in orbit around Caprica, even at night the station was plainly visible shining brightly from the reflected sunlight over the world she protected.

President Urie was standing next to Admiral Clements admiring the view on one of the massive HD view screens on the large front wall of the CIC. It was nighttime on Caprica and the only lights currently visible were from Caprica City and New Delphi. The two cities were brilliantly lit.

"Caprica looks so different at night now than it used to," President Urie spoke with a heavy sigh recalling the days before the Cylon war when a large portion of Caprica would have been lit up at night with city lights. Now the only two major cities that had large populations were Caprica City and New Delphi. Caprica city had, for the most part been rebuilt by the Cylons; and New Delphi had never been hit by a nuke.

"Yes it does," Admiral Clements replied gazing at the large view screen. In a way, he was glad it was night. In the daylight, even from their orbit 22,000 thousand kilometers above the planet, he could still imagine he could see the suburbs in Caprica City where he had lived and where his wife had died in the Cylon attack.

At least his son Martin had survived. Colonel Martin Clements was currently at Terra working with the Kobolans. The Kobolans and some Colonial engineers were finishing the final updating of the two Nova Class Battlestars that had been rescued from the Nova shipyard at Virgon. Both Battlestars were receiving the latest Kobolan technology and energy weapons. Professor Ravashol was deeply involved with setting up the new weapons systems for the two new Nova Class Battlestars. Clements was highly interested in seeing the final product.

"What's the latest census for Caprica?" Admiral Clements asked curiously. He knew that all of the other colonies had now been thoroughly combed for survivors.

It had been necessary for marines to sweep the planets on foot. Many Colonial survivors had hidden in areas that were extremely difficult to access. The survivors had taken refuge in heavily forested areas, mountains, and even in deep cave systems. It had been a difficult job on some of the colonies to get into the areas the survivors had fled to. Once rescued and convinced that the Cylon threat was over, most of the displaced Colonials had opted to move to Caprica or Gemenon due to the massive orbital defenses that were now present. Aquaria was protected in the same way.

The military had moved all the surviving defense satellites from the other colonies and bases and placed them around Caprica, Gemenon, and Aquaria. Not only that, but the New Haven Colony and the Sidon Colony, both of which were currently in orbit around Caprica, had built and replaced all the larger satellites with more modern and deadlier defense satellites.

"Nearly twenty million," President Urie replied recalling the latest numbers. His staff continuously updated the numbers whenever more survivors were found. He knew the numbers were not going to grow much more. "From our latest census there are an additional twenty two million on Aquaria, and six million on Gemenon. We estimate that several hundred thousand more are still living on the other colonies."

"Yes, I heard about that," Admiral Clements said turning to face President Urie. "Some people refused to leave their colonies electing to return to their homes instead when they learned that the Cylons had been defeated."

Nodding at the view screen President Urie continued, "Even on Caprica many people are still living in the small communities around the World Parks. Less than four million people are currently living in Caprica City and New Delphi."

"Can't say that I blame them," Clements replied recalling the war. "After what happened, for many it would be difficult to return to their old way of life. So many people were killed, and there are a lot of painful memories for everyone wherever they go. We are going to set up some small military garrisons on all the other colonies, at least that way if the survivors that elected to stay behind need aid, we will be there. There will also be regular space patrols to ensure the security of those colonies."

"Admiral," Major Reed interrupted from her post at communications. She was now the senior communications officer as well as responsible for the station's new Kobolan sensor systems. "The Battlestar Tauri has jumped into Caprica orbit, and Admiral Reynolds reports that they will be over shortly."

"Thank you Major," Admiral Clements replied nodding at the cute blond communications officer. "Inform Admiral Reed that I need him and Commander Stramm to meet us in the main conference room." Then turning to the President. "This must be important for Daniel and Lisa to both leave the Cylon home world together. They said it concerned the Galactica!"

"The Galactica, I hope they have some good news. I am also curious to meet Daniel," President Urie remarked. "From what I have heard, he is quite the Cylon. The final remaining Cylon from his line."

"Don't underestimate him," Clements cautioned recalling some of his previous meetings with Daniel. "I have spoken with him on a number of occasions, and he is by far the most intelligent Cylon I have ever met!"

Thirty minutes later, everyone had arrived in the conference room. President Urie, Admiral Clements, Admiral Reynolds, Admiral Reed, Commander Stramm, Daniel, and Lisa all had taken their seats after introductions.

"Admiral Reynolds, you asked for this meeting on behalf of Daniel," Admiral Clements began gazing at his second in command of the Colonial fleet. "What could be so important that you couldn't use a subspace message? It would have been faster I suspect." Clements looked over at Admiral Reynolds who was seated across from him with the two Cylons on Reynolds left side. Admiral Reynolds looked outwardly calm as he always did as did Daniel. However, Lisa looked extremely nervous and even slightly agitated. Evidently, something had happened at the Cylon home world. Clements was curious to hear what was going on.

Admiral Reynolds took a deep breath and looked over at Daniel nodding his head.

He still hadn't decided what to make of what Daniel had told him about the Cylon Basestar. What he had told him had sounded incredible.

"Six hours ago, a Cylon Basestar returned to our home world," Daniel began looking over at Admiral Clements and President Urie knowing the news would be a shock. There had been no returning Basestars since the end of the war.

"A Cylon Basestar!" Admiral Clements uttered surprised, and then looking over at Admiral Reynolds. "Why wasn't I informed of this immediately?"

"Because of the sensitivity of the information Daniel learned from the surviving crew of the Basestar, we both felt it was vital that we come here in person and not use a subspace broadcast," Reynolds replied calmly.

"What type of information?" President Urie asked looking confused. "The only surviving Basestars that we know of that escaped were with John's fleet, pursuing the Galactica, and the few that escaped with the Baseship."

"The damaged Basestar was from John's fleet," Daniel replied confirming what the President had said. "Evidently there was a falling out between the Cylons in John's fleet as there was on our home world. Civil war broke out between the two factions with a major part of the fleet being destroyed."

"Just like on our home world, but in this case, it broke out into an actual shooting war between the two sides with Basestars firing upon each other," Lisa added brushing her blond hair back behind her shoulders. "From what the rebel Basestar that made it back to our home world reported, all but one other rebel Basestar was destroyed as well as a number of John's loyalist ships."

"Then that part of the Cylon fleet is no longer a threat," Admiral Reed spoke thoughtfully. He looked over at Admiral Clements. "This might allow the Galactica and her fleet to get away from John's remaining fleet."

"What about the Galactica?" Clements asked looking intently at Daniel. "Did the rebel crew know anything about Adama and his fleet?"

"Yes they did," Daniel replied wondering just how the Colonials would take this next part. "Evidently they settled on a new world in a gaseous nebula they renamed New Caprica."

"Then we need to go there," Commander Stramm spoke with excitement in his eyes. "We can finally rescue them and bring them home!"

"Not quite," Daniel replied with a slight shake of his head. "Cavil found the new colony before the split with the rebels. They conquered and ruled over the Colonial survivors for nearly a year before Adama managed to free the people down on the planet and escape."

"What about Admiral Cain and the Pegasus, we understood that she had found the Galactica?" Admiral Reed asked not quite understanding what all had happened.

"Admiral Cain was killed by a Cylon agent on board the Pegasus, Admiral Adama's son Apollo took over command," Daniel continued. "The Pegasus was destroyed in the attack that freed the Colonials from New Caprica. However, the Pegasus took out three Basestars in the battle. From the reports from the rebel Basestar Commander, we know that several thousand Colonials died down on New Caprica."

"Frak," President Urie uttered in anger. "More deaths, I can't imagine what Adama and his people must be going through on board those ships. We must find them!"

"What happened next?" Clements asked agreeing with the President. He could tell from the look on the two Cylons as well as Admiral Reynolds that there was more.

"The two fleets met up again in the Ionian nebula with both fleets loosing power," Daniel replied looking slightly perplexed. "The Commander of the Basestar had no explanation for why all the ships lost power. The Cylons had set up an ambush in the nebula to trap the Colonial ships. They had just recovered from their own power loss when the Galactica and her fleet jumped into the nebula. The Colonial ships lost power and John launched his raiders. However, for some reason the raiders broke off their attack and refused to fire upon the Colonial ships. John was forced to withdraw his fleet."

"They refused to fire!" President Urie said shocked. "What happened, how could they disobey John?"

Daniel looked over at Lisa then back to the President and Admiral Clements. "It seems that the Final Five Cylons are with the Colonial fleet. As such, the raiders programming would not allow them to fire upon the Colonials for fear of harming one of the Final Five."

"What the frak is this Final Five?" Commander Stramm asked looking around at the other Colonials. "I thought we knew all the Cylon models!"

Daniel took a deep breath; they had never talked about the Final Five to the Colonials, even after the war was over. "The Final Five were responsible for ending the first Cylon war. They agreed to help us to form a civilization of our own and to make some of their technology available to us."

"I'm confused," Admiral Clements spoke with raised eyebrows. "Just who were these Final Five and where did they come from?"

Daniel was quiet for a long moment. He wasn't sure how the Colonials would take his next statement. He hadn't even told Admiral Reynolds about this.

"They came from Earth," he spoke in a calm voice.

"Earth!" President Urie and Admiral Clements said almost in unison.

"How can that be?" Admiral Reed demanded looking confused. "Why didn't they contact us instead of the Cylons?"

"From what I have been able to learn from the Cylon Mainframe computer, the Final Five appeared just before the end of the first Cylon war," Daniel replied looking around at the group of Colonial officers and President Urie." Their ship was a sublight vessel. It had been in transit from Earth for over one thousand years, and it had extremely limited FTL capability. They encountered the Cylons of the first war and got them to agree to stop the conflict. In return, they would help them build a new Cylon civilization. As you know, that didn't go very well. We had thought that John and several other members of his line had killed the Final Five. Their survival came as a shock to me."

"What happened to Earth?" Admiral Reynolds asked. "Why did they come here?"

"Earth built their own mechanical Cylons and became involved in a war with their creations, just like here in the Colonies," Lisa spoke her blue eyes wide open. "The Final Five were humans who had rediscovered Resurrection technology."

"What do you mean rediscovered?" President Urie asked. "I don't understand. I thought only Cylon could resurrect."

Daniel took a deep breath. "It seems that the Thirteenth Tribe was Cylon, that's why they left Kobol and settled on Earth."

"Cylon!" President Urie uttered in surprise leaning back in his chair, then looking over at Clements. We need to talk to our Kobolan friends, didn't' they say that representatives of all thirteen Kobolan tribes are currently living on Terra?"

"Yes they did," Admiral Clements replied wondering about the ramifications. "Admiral Landers will arrive here with the Zeus in the next few days. We can settle that question when he arrives."

"So what did happen to Earth?" Reynolds asked again.

"It was destroyed, it's a radioactive ruin, the only survivors were the Final Five. They had built a ship and had it in orbit, they downloaded into new bodies on the ship when they died in the war on and came here," Lisa replied.

"So Adama is going to a dead planet," Admiral Reed spoke looking seriously concerned. "God I wish we knew exactly where Earth is. What's Adama and his people going to do if they arrive at Earth and find out that they have been searching for a dead planet? It will be devastating!"

"But we do know the location of Earth," Daniel spoke looking over at Admiral Reed. "I found the coordinates in the Mainframe."

Clements was quiet for a long moment, and then he looked over at Admiral Reed. "We're going to have to go to Earth," he spoke wondering how all this was going to end. There had been too many bombshells in this meeting so far. The Cylon Basestar, the Final Five, The Thirteenth Tribe, and now the location of Earth.

"What about John and the remaining Cylons?" Admiral Reed asked. "He still has some Basestars, the Colony, and the Resurrection Hub at his disposal. He can build new ships and resurrect his dead Cylon crews."

"Not any longer," Lisa said looking over at Daniel who nodded slightly. "The other surviving rebel Basestar joined up with Admiral Adama's fleet. They launched a joint attack against the Resurrection Hub and destroyed it. John no longer has resurrection technology available to him. He can't download his crews. When they die, they die for real!"

"Holy frak!" Commander Stramm spoke his eyes meeting Admiral Clements. "If we send a big enough task force and take out their Colony, the Cylon threat will be eliminated."

"Except for the Baseship, which escaped from our home world," Daniel corrected thinking about the Colony and all the technology that it contained. The Final Five's ship was at its heart. The Colony had been built around it. "I agree that the Colony must be destroyed, I must warn you though, it's very heavily armed!"

"That could be part of our next search," Admiral Reed said thoughtfully wondering what it would take to destroy the Cylon Colony. "If we go to Earth and find the Cylon Colony on the way, the new Pulse Lasers could come in very handy."

Admiral Clements looked around the group still trying to digest everything he had just heard. "There are still a lot of unanswered questions," he said. "I want to go through all of this again and in a lot more detail."

For the next several hours, the group talked. The Colonials asking questions, and Daniel and Lisa answering them.

**Commandstar Aurora Two Days Later**

Admiral Clements was in the CIC of the Commandstar Aurora watching the Dradis and sensor screens. The Aurora had been completely repaired since the heavy damage she had suffered during the war. The Aurora currently was in orbit 10,000 Kilometers above Caprica with her two escorts, the Warstars Ulysses and Chimera. Both of the Warstars had been to Terra and had been totally updated with current Kobolan technology. However, the Warstars were not equipped with lasers or pulse lasers. Their armor had been upgraded, the internal systems modernized, the Tylium energizers recalibrated and updated increasing the available power, the KEW batteries had been enhanced, and of course a new energy screen. Clements knew that in close in fighting the Warstars would be deadly.

Looking over at the operations table, he saw that the Mercury Class Battlestar Picon was currently in orbit over Gemenon with her escorts the Columbia Two Class Battlestars Altair and Archimedes.

The displayed data also showed the Mercury Class Battlestar Canopus along with the Jupiter Class Battlestar Odyssey and the Jupiter Two Class Battlestar Chimera in orbit over Aquaria.

The Mercury Class Battlestar Aires was in orbit on the other side of Caprica with seven Firestars as escorts.

He looked back at the screen, which showed one of the new 1,000-meter defense stations that were orbiting Caprica in an orbit 7,500 kilometers above the planet. These had been built on the Sidon, and there were currently sixteen of the new powerful defense stations in orbit. All had modern weapons, energy screens, and four viper squadrons in their launching bays.

"Enjoying the view," Commander Ted Cain spoke with a slight smile on his face. He knew that the Admiral enjoyed coming over to the Aurora and visiting with the crew and checking out the new upgrades that were constantly being added to the fleets most powerful ship.

"Even in the new Caprica Station the CIC doesn't compare to this," Admiral Clements replied with a heavy sigh looking out over the large CIC and the bustling crew that manned all the myriad of duty stations.

The Aurora was responsible for monitoring all the Colonial fleet units and enacting an immediate response to any foreseeable threat within the colonies. If need be, Admiral Clements could be on the Aurora in a matter of minutes to take command of the fleet.

"You know we are going to the Caspian system in a few more days to check on the mining operations," Commander Cain said looking at the Admiral. "You're more than welcome to make the trip with us. We're going to be testing out some of the new systems the Kobolan engineers have installed."

"Thanks Ted," Admiral Clements replied wishing he could go. "But if I know Andrea Nagala she has the system well in hand."

Andrea Nagala was currently running two large mining operations, one near the Demeter system in the Delphi Quadrant, and back in the Caspian system where she was producing all the raw materials for construction in the colonies. She had brought nearly 15,000 of her old workers back with her to start the Caspian system back up. Currently the Warstars Olympia and Athena were providing protection for the system. There were also two of the new defense stations furnishing additional protection if needed.

"We've made a lot of progress over the last five years," Commander Cain commented gazing at the main view screen, which showed a close up of one of the new defense stations. The station literally bristled with weapons.

At that moment, an alarm on the Dradis screen went off. Looking at the screen Admiral Clements saw a red blip suddenly appear and then turn a friendly green.

"It's the Zeus," Commander Cain said as he glanced at the ID being displayed on his command screen.

"Good," Admiral Clements spoke. "Send a message to Admiral Landers that I need to speak with him in the main conference room here on the Aurora."

Commander Cain looked at the Admiral in surprise. He had expected any meeting to take place over on Caprica Station. If he wanted to meet over here then something unexpected was going on.

"Yes sir," Commander Cain replied.

Twenty minutes later, Admiral Landers entered the conference room seeing Admiral Clements waiting for him. He had been surprised when he had received the order to meet the Admiral on the Aurora. He wondered what was going on. He had gotten to know the Admiral quite well over the years since the war.

"Have a seat Mase," Admiral Clements spoke gesturing to a chair across the table from him. "How was your trip?"

"Pretty routine," Admiral Landers replied as he sat down. "We got here as quick as we could, Admiral Crius mentioned that Admiral Reed had encountered Ovions way out past the Promar sector in totally unexplored space."

"Yes, that's true," Admiral Clements replied. "But that's not why I called you over here where we could meet privately."

Admiral Landers had a sudden premonition that he was not going to like what he was about to hear.

"A Cylon Basestar returned to the Cylon home world a few days ago from John Cavil's fleet," Clements began.

"A Cylon Basestar!" Landers echoed in surprise; he definitely hadn't been expecting this. "Then did you learn what happened to the Galactica?"

"Not completely, but we did learn something that we hadn't expected," Admiral Clements spoke looking seriously at Admiral Landers. "We discovered that the Thirteenth Tribe that left Kobol was Cylon!"

A cold chill ran across Admiral Lander's neck. In his mind, he knew that he was about to be put in an extremely difficult position, one he hadn't expected, but one that everyone on Terra knew would come up some day.

Admiral Clements continued, noting the stunned look on Admiral Lander's face. "From our understanding there are members of the Thirteenth Tribe on Terra. Are they Cylons?"

Admiral Landers was quiet for a moment. The cat was out of the bag, and he knew that only the truth could salvage this situation. He had told Admiral Crius and the civilian government of Terra that the Colonials should be told, but they had wanted to wait.

"Yes," he replied in a steady voice. "There are Cylons on Terra, but they are different from the Cylons you know."

"How so?" Admiral Clements asked leaning forward. He was not happy that the Kobolans had not brought this up before. It made him wonder if there was anything else they were hiding.

"The Cylons on our world are totally integrated into our society," Landers replied carefully choosing his words. "All thirteen tribes work and live together. Not only that, but the members of the Thirteenth Tribe on our world are capable of having children, they are no longer looked at as Cylons as you would call them. They are just fellow Terrans or Kobolans."

"Do you know any of them very well?" Admiral Clements asked. He would like to meet one to form his own opinion.

"Yes," Admiral Landers replied looking unblinking into Admiral Clement's eyes. "I am a member of the Thirteenth Tribe. I am what you would call a Cylon!

There was a profound silence in the room as the two Admirals looked at each other.

_Author's note: I mentioned some of the ships currently based in the colonies. There are more. There are some of the newly constructed Jupiter Class Battlestars that were built at Demeter. In addition, the first of the new Firestar Class Repulse Battle Cruisers have been constructed. So far, there are eight of these and the New Haven colony is handling their construction. There are also a number of Gunstars and Escortstars out on routine patrols of the colonies._

_I would also like more feedback on my website about the new Battlestar Galactica story I am considering. For those of you that have already responded, **thank you!** _


	4. Chapter 4

**Sidon Mining Colony in orbit over Caprica**

Admiral Clements stood looking out the large window at the modern colonial city at the heart of the massive mining colony. It was early evening in the colony and the overhead lights had gradually dimmed to imitate the setting sun. Streetlights could be seen coming on across the busy city as well as lights in some of the taller buildings where people still worked on colony business. Johnathan knew that, on the far end of the colony beyond the city, the many automated factories were running nonstop producing equipment and material to be shipped down to the surface of Caprica to aid in the rebuilding process. This colony meant something special to Admiral Clements, without it and its manufacturing capability the Cylons might never have been defeated.

"I never get tired of this view," Governor Mike Patterson spoke from his position next to the Admiral peering out the window. "We still have 700,000 people living in the Sidon, and I suspect it's going to stay that way for a long time."

"They feel safe here," Johnathan replied in a quiet voice. "It's become their home and a place to raise their families without fear. Something we all need. Down on the colonies there are still signs of the war everywhere. Burned out cities, destroyed farms, and hundreds of millions of graves. It will be decades before people on the surface begin to feel completely safe again."

"The New Haven colony is the same way," Mike continued nodding his head in agreement. "Governor Anderlen reports the same thing. Very few of the refugees want to return home."

"I guess it was to be expected," Johnathan replied with a heavy sigh wishing everyone could feel as safe and secure as the people on the two large asteroid colonies. "Too many of the survivors we rescued as we were leaving the colonies and then later with our attack on the refugee camps on Celeen 2 and Picon the asteroid colonies became their homes."

"Even back in the nebula it is still the same," Mike spoke recalling his latest communication with General Collins who had returned to the nebula to check on current operations. They were still proceeding with building a large military asteroid colony. This colony would be capable of building almost any military hardware and munitions that you could imagine. In addition, the military asteroid would also have a small shipyard on one end capable of building the new Firestar Repulse Class Battle Cruisers.

It had been decided to keep the two completed Agro colonies inside the safety of the Andorian Nebula. Currently 75,000 colonial citizens lived in each of the two Agro colonies living very peaceful and secure lives. If a disaster were to full upon the survivors of the Twelve Colonies, the two Agro colonies would serve as secure fall back positions. There were also four of the new Titan 2 Class Gunstars permanently assigned to the nebula as well as a number of large and powerful defensive satellites.

"I wonder if things will ever get back as they were before the Cylon attack?" Johnathan sighed knowing instinctively that it would take a long time. It was even hard for him to go down to the surface. The memories of some of the places he and his wife had visited on Caprica would always be with him. Many of those places had been destroyed in the Cylon attack.

"In future generations, it will be better," Mike replied knowing that living in the Sidon had protected much of its population from the horrors of the war. "Children being born today won't remember the war. It will take awhile, but in future generations, the war will just be a distant part of history."

The two were interrupted as President Urie, Governor Anderlen, Admiral Reynolds, and Admiral Reed entered the large conference room. Everyone walked over to the large conference room table and took their seats. This would be the first time they had all met since Admiral Landers had made his surprising admission two weeks back.

President Urie looked over at Governor Patterson with a look of concern and curiosity on his face. He had been deeply concerned since Admiral Landers had made his shocking admission about being a Cylon of the Thirteenth Tribe. "What did the scientists and medical teams find out Mike?"

"As you all know, two weeks ago we learned that the Thirteenth Tribe was a form of Cylon," Mike began taking a deep breath and looking around at the assembled group. All eyes were focused intently on him. "This came as a tremendous shock to all of us, but does explain why they took a different path when they left Kobol instead of coming along with the other twelve tribes."

"I still find it disturbing that the Kobolans didn't reveal this fact to us earlier," Governor Anderlen interrupted shaking his head. "I realize that the majority of their population is completely human, but the fact that they have tens of millions of Cylons living amongst their population should have been revealed to us earlier."

"From what Admiral Landers has told me, their military wanted to tell us," Admiral Clements spoke recalling the long conversations with Admiral Landers over the last two weeks. "It was their civilian government that was hesitant. Due to our hatred of the Cylons, they were worried about how it might affect our relations, especially with Demeter so close."

"I guess I can understand that," Governor Anderlen replied. "But they still should have made some effort. I mean, it's been over five years since the war was over. They had to know we would find out sooner or later!"

"What did the tests results show?" President Urie asked inclining his head toward Governor Patterson.

"As you all know, Admiral Landers made a number of his crew available to us," Governor Patterson responded opening up a thick folder and passing out several thin sheets of papers to the others. "Out of his total crew of 1,000 on his cruiser, 82 of them have Cylon heritage in their background. Sixteen of them volunteered to be tested by our experts."

"Eighty two out of 1,000," Governor Anderlen spoke with his eyes wide. "I guess that's to be expected if the Thirteenth Tribe is as numerous on Terra as the other twelve are."

"The tests were quite surprising," Governor Patterson continued looking down at the test results on the paper in front of him. "All sixteen show some of the same genetic markers as the current race of Cylons we are familiar with. However, only two showed all of them. From what our scientists here on the Sidon have reported as well as our medical experts, the centuries of interbreeding with the other twelve tribes have diluted the markers to the extent that, for the most part, they are barely detectable. Most of the members of the Thirteenth Tribe on Terra are far more closely related to humans than they are to current day Cylons. They also no longer possess the ability to download, that too disappeared as they interbred with the other tribes."

"Then all this worry has been for nothing," Governor Anderlen breathed with a heavy sigh of relief.

"Yes," Governor Patterson replied recalling his conversations with Admiral Landers. "The tribes on Terra for the most part have become so interbred over the centuries that they look upon themselves as Kobolans and not members of an individual tribe. However, each tribe does maintain a small group of members that does not practice interbreeding and have stayed relatively pure. This is where the members of the Quorum on Terra are chosen from. From what Admiral Landers has told me, this group consists of around 100,000 to 125,000 members of each tribe."

"Not a large enough of a group to be a real threat," President Urie spoke thoughtfully. "Even 125,000 Cylons on Terra amounts to only a very minor fraction of their overall population."

"Remember that these Cylons have always lived and worked with their human counter parts of the other twelve tribes," Admiral Clements spoke. "To them being Cylon is no different than being a member of the other twelve tribes."

"In your scientist's opinion, there is no potential threat here?" President Urie asked.

"No, none what so ever," Governor Patterson replied. "Even the pure blood members of the Thirteenth Tribe look upon themselves as being Kobolan first and a member of the Thirteenth Tribe second."

"Well I'm glad that's behind us," President Urie spoke with a relieved look upon his face. "Admiral Clements if you will arrange a meeting with Admiral Landers in the morning I want to personally apologize to him and his crew for any inconvenience or problems this incident may have caused."

"Admiral Landers has been very understanding in all of this," Admiral Clements replied. "I will set up a meeting."

"Now on to other business. What have we found out about the Galactica's location from the records of the Cylon Basestar and the Cylon Hall of Knowledge?" President Urie asked looking intently at Admiral Clements.

"Under the recommendation of Admiral Landers, we forwarded the stellar coordinates to Professor Anthon on Terra. He is science specialist Denise Anthon's father," Clements replied.

"Why him?" Governor Patterson asked confused. "Our own astronomers could have confirmed the coordinates."

"That's the problem," Clements replied with a frown. "They couldn't. We couldn't match up any star system with those coordinates. We used our most powerful telescopes to check those coordinates, and there isn't a star there!"

The room was silent for a long moment, before the President asked. "Now what do we do?"

"I don't know, but Professor Anthon was very excited after he had time to study the information we forwarded him from the Basestar and the Hall of Knowledge," Clements replied.

"I don't understand," Admiral Reed spoke looking confused. "What did he find?"

"He hasn't said," Admiral Clements replied shaking his head slightly. "But he and his daughter are on the way here even as we speak. The rest of Admiral Lander's battle group is acting as escort, and the new Jupiter Class Battlestars Hyperion, Prometheus, and Pacifica are also enroute."

"Anything else?" President Urie asked leaning back in his chair, in thought."

"Yes, Professor Anthon and his daughter are on board the exploration ship Explorer, which the Kobolans have put through a complete update. They are also bringing two of the Super Colony ships that were in orbit around Demeter."

"He knows something," Admiral Reed said leaning forward excitedly. "Professor Anthon wouldn't be coming here with that large a force if he didn't. He knows where the Galactica is!"

"I believe you're right," Admiral Clements replied with a nod. "But with the force that's coming with him, I don't think it's all good news."

**Caprica Station **

Four weeks later, Admiral Clements, Admiral Reynolds, Admiral Reed, Admiral Stockwell, and Admiral Landers were meeting in the main conference aboard Caprica Station. The mission to rescue the Galactica was about to be launched.

"I still don't understand why we have to go the Ionian Nebula instead of straight to Earth," Admiral Reed commented perplexed. "Professor Anthon has been very insistent that we have to go that route, but has been very evasive as to why. He says he will reveal his reasoning when we get to the nebula."

"I agree it's very strange," Admiral Clements replied nodding his head in thought. "But the Kobolans have agreed to commit Admiral Lander's battle group to the mission as well as the colonial Exploration ship Explorer, which they have completely redesigned and modernized."

"The two super colony ships have finished going through their system updates and modifications over the last several weeks," Admiral Reynolds spoke looking at a report in front of him. "If we find the Galactica and her fleet that gives us room to put 10,000 people each on board those two ships."

"Will that be enough?" Admiral Stockwell asked looking over at Admiral Clements. "From what we have learned from the surviving human Cylons on the rebel Basestar, there were nearly 40,000 surviving colonials still in Admiral Adama's fleet."

"Some of their ships should still be serviceable," Clements commented. "We could also put survivors in our warships if necessary.

"We are also taking the Fleet Tender Crescent, so we could repair any of Adama's ships that need it," Admiral Reed added. "That should give us sufficient lift capacity for all the survivors."

"I also don't know why Professor Anthon is insisting on going to the Ionian Nebula instead of setting a direct course for Earth," Admiral Landers interjected shaking his head listening to the conversation. "I talked to him earlier, and all he would tell me is that we can't go to Earth directly without going to the nebula first."

"Sounds very mysterious," Admiral Stockwell stated leaning back in his chair and drumming the fingers of his right hand on the table. "Just what ships are we sending on this rescue mission? I'm still nervous about this new group of Ovions Admiral Reed ran into on his last mission."

Admiral Clements looked around the group. Admiral Reed, President Urie, and he had discussed this in considerable detail just several nights back over lunch at one of the plushier restaurants on the Sidon. "The trip to the Ionian Nebula skirts what we think is the home stomping grounds of this new group of Ovions by several hundred light years. However, that's only supposition. We can't be sure just how far their colonies extend out without more exploration."

"How are we going to do that?" Admiral Stockwell asked with concern in his eyes. We don't have the fleet assets to get drawn into another long drawn out war, perhaps it's best if we just stay away from their area of space."

"Terra feels that this new group of Ovions represents a very serious future threat," Admiral Landers spoke with a frown creasing his forehead. "Just the way they attacked Admiral Reed's battle group is a cause for concern. The President and the Quorum have authorized a reconnaissance in force. Admiral Crius will be taking a large battle group out to the area where Admiral Reed encountered the Ovions. These will be out latest ships and heavily stealthed."

"That worries me," Admiral Reynolds spoke his eyes widening and looking around the group. "What if the Ovions detect this force and consider it an act of war?"

"With the advanced stealth systems Admiral Crius's battle group will be employing that is highly doubtful," Admiral Landers responded. "The battle group will stay just outside of what we believe is Ovion space, and special heavily stealthed units will be used to explore that entire area of space. I hope that when they return, we will know how large an area of space the Ovions occupy and just how big a threat these new Ovions represent. That is also why Admiral Crius is going. To ensure there is no accidental provocation of the Ovions. Every safe guard possible will be used to make sure the Ovions don't detect our ships."

"This course of action has already been discussed with President Urie and the other heads of the civilian government," Admiral Clements added. "We believe just the distance involved will keep us relatively safe from a new war, however, we must know what is out there. The Ovions have demonstrated in the past that they can be totally ruthless. Look at what happened to New Kobol and her colonies."

**CAPRICA STATION MAIN CIC**

It was a week later, and Admiral Reed was standing next to Admiral Clements in the main CIC of Caprica Station. The main view screens were focused on the assembled fleet that had gathered in upper orbit above the station.

"Should we be taking this many of our warships on this mission?" Admiral Reed asked feeling uneasy about taking so many ships with him.

"Our remaining forces will be more than adequate," Admiral Clements replied nodding his head at the screens. "With our planetary defense grids, Caprica Station, the Sidon and New Haven colonies, plus the Aurora we have all the firepower we need. Don't forget we also have the Mercury Class Battlestars, Aires, Picon, Tauri, and Canopus and their attending fleets."

"What if we encounter the Cylons?" Admiral Reed asked. They had discussed this already, but he wanted to confirm his orders. "Do you really want us to destroy any of their ships we encounter on our way to Earth?"

Admiral Clements hesitated for a moment. "We don't know where the Cylon Baseship went that escaped from the Cylon home world. We know that four Basestars and eight Support Ships escaped with it."

"They could be anywhere rebuilding their forces," Reed replied worriedly hoping he didn't encounter that Baseship. The pulse lasers it was equipped with were deadly.

"They can't build new Basestars, only the Colony could produce the hybrids needed to operate their Basestars," Clements answered. "They could build new Baseships and Support Ships, but it will take years to implement that type of building program."

"So, if we encounter any Cylon survivors we are to engage and destroy?" Admiral Reed replied looking at one of the screens, which showed his fleet's flagship the Rycon floating in orbit far above them.

"Yes," Admiral Clements answered looking at Admiral Reed solemnly. "According to the survivors on the Rebel Basestar only one other rebel ship survived. It has joined Admiral Adama's fleet. You are to consider any other Cylon ships you encounter as hostile and destroy them."

"That's why the new nukes have been loaded aboard the three Kobolan battle cruisers," Admiral Reed replied. The new weapons were frightening. All three Kobolan battle cruisers had been loaded with 100-megaton nukes. Each ship was given two each to be used against the Cylon Colony if encountered.

"Yes," Clements replied. "I only authorized the production of the six we are sending with you, they are based on the same designs as the 50 megaton nukes the Cylons used against us."

They were both silent as they stood in the CIC watching the fleet in orbit above them.

Two hours later, Admiral Reed entered the CIC of the Jupiter Class Battlestar Rycon. "Current fleet status?" he asked looking at his Executive Officer Major Streth.

"All ships are fully supplied and ready for the first FTL jump. Pre jump checks have been completed, and the first set of coordinates for our first jump point has been downloaded," Major Streth reported.

Admiral Reed looked around the CIC. They were finally going to Earth. If Professor Anthon was correct, and he could indeed furnish them with the proper coordinates after going to the Ionian Nebula, than Adama and his fleet were finally within reach. Reed took a deep breath wondering just what all Adama and his fleet had gone through over the past seven years.

In Caprica Station, Admiral Clements watched the assembled rescue fleet in high orbit on the view screens. He knew he was sending Admiral Reed and Admiral Landers on a dangerous mission; there was a high probability that somewhere along the way they would encounter the remains of John's fleet. He just hoped that Admiral Reed returned safely and brought back Admiral Adama and his survivors.

On the main view screen, the ships of the rescue fleet began to vanish in blue white flashes of light. In less then two minutes, the fleet was gone, and the mission to rescue the Galactica was on its way.

If you would like to read an excerpt from my upcoming story **The Ovion Kobolan War,** go to my profile page, then to my website, then to Battlestar Galactica.

**Ships in the Rescue Fleet**

Jupiter Class Battlestars _(Rycon, Prometheus, Hyperion, and Pacifica)_

Valkyrie Class Battlestars (_Victory, Independence, Dark Search, Shrike, and Caprica)_

Firestar Repulse Class Battle Cruisers _(Osiris, Hibernia, Eternal, and Cerebrus)_

Kobolan Battle Cruisers _(Zeus, Apollo, and Terra)_

Six Kobolan Heavy Escorts

Electronics Surveillance Ship _(Silent Seeker)_

Marine Assault Vessel _(Guardian)_

Kobolan Hospital Ship _(Mercy)_

Fleet Tender and Dry Dock _(Crescent)_

Exploration Ship _(Explorer)_

Two Super Colony Ships

Four Tylium Tankers

Four Supply Ships


	5. Chapter 5

Admiral Reed stood next to the large operations table, which currently showed the fleet in orbit around a small white dwarf star system. They had made sixteen jumps so far following the course plotted by Professor Anthon toward the Ionian Nebula.

In just two more jumps, they would be at their first destination. They were already outside of the Cyrannus Star Cluster. The Professor had plotted a series of jumps through less dense areas of the cluster allowing them to jump an average of five light years until they had departed the cluster. From there, the jumps had grew to nearly twenty-two light years each.

"This gaseous nebula is where New Caprica is," he stated touching the operations display and looking at Lisa who was standing across the operations table from him.

She was studying the information being displayed. The blond Cylon had volunteered to accompany the fleet, so she could aid in identifying any Cylon units they might come across.

"Yes," Lisa replied using her left hand to brush her long shoulder length blond hair back behind her shoulders. She wasn't dressed quite as provocative as her line normally dressed. For this mission, she had thought it would be best to dress more conservatively. "From the reports from the rebel Basestar Commander, the Colonials stayed down on the planet nearly 498 days before being rescued by Admiral Adama."

"Most of that under Cylon occupation," Commander Stramm spoke in a harsh tone. He knew that many people had died under the occupation of the Cylons as well as in the desperate escape.

"That's correct Commander," Lisa replied not defending what the Cylons had done. She had studied the information in the data stream on the rebel Basestar and had been sickened at what her brethren had done on New Caprica. "It was a very daring rescue."

"The Pegasus was destroyed in that system," Admiral Reed continued eyeing Lisa speculatively. Since the end of the war, he hadn't spent much time around the surviving Cylons. Lisa seemed to despise what the Cylons had done in the war.

"Yes," Lisa replied sadly looking at the Admiral. "Along with three Basestars that she took with her. The Pegasus died a proud death."

Admiral Reed studied the stellar map on the operations table for several more long moments. They had always planned to check out New Caprica before going on to the Ionian Nebula. There was a slight chance that there might still be a few Colonial survivors down on the surface. He had read the written report that Daniel and Lisa had furnished Admiral Clements and President Urie on what had occurred down on New Caprica. Both the President and Admiral Clements had been shocked at what had happened down on New Caprica, from the Colonials who had assisted the Cylons to the human resistance movement. Both groups hadn't hesitated to kill other humans. There were also the Cylon execution squads.

"I want to take the fleet to this star system, just outside of the nebula," Reed said pointing to a small binary system. "We will launch several stealth raptors and have them scan New Caprica and the space around it to see what's there."

"The Silent Seeker will be useless in this situation," Commander Stramm stated frowning. "The dust and gas in the nebula are too thick for her scanners to penetrate."

"That's why we will use the raptors," Reed replied with a nod. "They can jump in undetected, do their scans and then return with their reports."

"You don't expect to find anything there do you?" Commander Stramm asked. From what the rebel Basestar had reported, Stramm was convinced that New Caprica had pretty well been leveled from all the fighting. Supposedly, a nuclear fail-safe device had been activated after the Cylons left destroying the settlement.

"Probably not," Admiral Reed replied shaking his head. "But I want to play it safe; we are already quite a ways from the Colonies. Let's see what's there before we continue on."

"Admiral," Lisa began turning her blue eyes toward Admiral Reed. "If the settlement wasn't destroyed, there is the possibility of some Cylon survivors. What will you do in that case?"

"We will make that decision after the survey is done," Reed replied surprised at the question. He had never considered the possibility of Cylon survivors still being down on the planet. He had assumed that all the Cylons would have left with the Cylon fleet.

"Commander Stramm we have two more jumps to make," Admiral Reed said turning his attention to the Rycon's Commander. "I want both of those jumps plotted and executed. One jump every four hours. Once we get to the binary system, we will stand most of the fleet down to Condition Three except for the Rycon and the new Firestar battle cruisers. We will launch the stealth raptors upon arrival and then wait for their return. I want as much of the fleet rested as possible just in case something unexpected turns up."

"Yes sir," Commander Stramm replied.

"Lisa I want you to give me some options as to what to do if we do find Cylons down on the surface," Reed continued recalling the blond Cylons previous question. "Keep in mind that these Cylons were part of John's fleet and may not be very receptive to the path your group decided to take."

"I am aware of that Admiral," Lisa replied with a sad look. "But we are so few in number that any new additions would be welcome, just as you seek out the survivors of Admiral Adama's fleet, we seek out any survivors of John's fleet that might be willing to join us."

"Just remember Lisa," Reed warned looking into Lisa's eyes. "I won't endanger this fleet!"

"I wouldn't expect you to Admiral," Lisa replied with a nod.

A little over eight hours later, Admiral Reed felt the Ricon come out of her last FTL jump. Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the main Dradis screen waiting for it to clear.

"All ships report successful jumps," Captain Billings reported as her communications console lit up with messages. "Admiral Landers reports he is moving his Kobolan battle group in to shield the noncombatants."

The main Dradis screen cleared. Admiral Reed could see the three Kobolan battle cruisers and six heavy escorts taking up defensive positions around the noncombatant ships. With the Kobolan hospital ship Mercy and the exploration ship Explorer deep in the center of the protected ships. On the main view screen, Reed could also see the Fleet Tender Crescent floating close by the Mercy and the Explorer.

"Launching CAP and the stealth raptors," Commander Stramm reported as he listened to the reports from the port flight pod over his mini com.

"I am not detecting anything out of the ordinary in the system sir," Captain Simms reported as she studied the sensor data, which was beginning to come in over her data screens.

"Silent Seeker is beginning its scans," Captain Billings reported from communications.

"That will at least warn us if there are any Cylon ships around," Commander Stramm stated glancing at Admiral Reed. "We're not that far outside the cluster, I can't see the Cylons still being in this close. They wouldn't want to risk us finding them."

"We shall see," Admiral Reed replied looking at the main view screen and the other view screens on the front wall of the CIC. He wondered just what they would find down on New Caprica.

On one of the other screens, one of the new Firestar battle cruisers was visible. The new battle cruiser was very heavily armed. The new Repulse Class had two small flight pods each containing a full squadron of Mark eight vipers. The new cruisers were also armed with a heavy mega pulse laser as well as eight quad pulse laser batteries and other weapons. They had a powerful energy shield as well as extra thick armor.

Down in the starboard flight pod Major Aaron Simms was talking to several of his pilots. "I don't give a frak how good a pilot you two may think you are," he spoke with a trace of anger and impatience in his voice. "Both of you left gear marks in the flight deck on your last landings. Don't tell me you weren't trying to hot dog it. It's obvious you both came in too fast."

"It won't happen again sir," Lieutenant Waller's spoke looking down at the flight deck not wanting to meet Major Simms eyes. Then forcing himself to look the Major in the eye he continued. "We weren't hot dogging it sir, the deck chief has been giving us a hard time about our vipers…."

"And you wanted to teach him a lesson by scratching up his flight deck," Simms continued shaking his head in exasperation. "Very well, both of you can join the knuckle draggers and help repair the deck. You are both suspended from flight duty until I hear the deck is once more acceptable to the chief."

Both men frowned knowing they were in for a very unpleasant time from the deck chief. "Yes sir," they replied in unison.

Major Simms dismissed the two and strolled over to the deck chief who had been standing by watching. "There yours for now chief," Simms said shaking his head still a little aggravated. "Just take it easy on my pilots, I may need them later."

"No problem Major," Chief Kelley replied with a satisfied smile. He was going to enjoy working these two pilots. The two had been harassing his deck crew for several weeks. "When you get them back they will have a new respect for my deck crew, I can guarantee you that."

Nodding, Aaron turned and started walking towards the pilot's ready room. Two squadrons of pilots were currently waiting in case they were needed. The ship was currently at condition two, and the pilots were relaxing in the ready room just a few short steps from their waiting vipers.

Aaron wondered just what the raptors would find on New Caprica. He had been briefed on what had occurred down on the planet and in the battle with the Cylon Basestars. He was particularly interested in getting to the system and seeing what remains he could find of the Pegasus. He had known several of the pilots on the Battlestar; they had attended flight school together. He wanted to pay his respect to the remains of the Pegasus.

Admiral Reed was in his quarters when his com unit went off. "Admiral Reed," he spoke looking across his office at a picture on the far wall. It showed his parents home back on Picon.

"Stealth raptors are back, and they have transmitted a code blue one," Commander Stramm reported in a barely constrained voice.

Admiral Reed sat up straighter in his chair. A code blue one meant heavy Cylon presence. Basestars detected! "Have the raptor pilots meet me in the conference room, also inform Admiral Landers and General Cummins that I will need their presence also."

Forty minutes later, they were all staring in shock at the object being displayed on the main view screen in the conference room.

"It's the Cylon Colony, or what's left of it," Lisa said staring aghast at the screen. She could see that the Colony had been heavily damaged. How the Cylons had managed to get it inside the nebula, was a miracle. "It looks as if it took some serious nuclear strikes setting off some type of chain reaction inside. From what I recall of the Colony I would estimate that at least sixty percent of it is unusable."

"The raptors also report six Basestars in orbit around New Caprica," Commander Stramm added taking a deep breath and gazing at the screen. Only the asteroid colonies New Haven and the Sidon could compare in size to this thing.

"Admiral Adama must have hit it somehow," Admiral Landers commented amazed that the Cylons had constructed such a monstrosity. He also wondered how Adama could have inflicted so much damage with just his old Battlestar.

"The ship the Final Five came in is supposed to be at its center," Lisa spoke with wide eyes wishing she could see that ship. "The Colony was built around it."

"I can't believe that Admiral Adama would even risk attacking that thing," General Cummins muttered shaking his head. "Look at how heavily armed the undamaged sections of that thing are!"

"Lisa, can the Cylons repair the Colony?" Admiral Reed asked looking over at the blond Cylon.

"Possibly," she replied trying to estimate the damage. She could see several large, jagged holes in the Colony's superstructure where nukes had struck. Other holes were still in the process of being sealed up. "The Colony has a lot of redundant systems as well as some self repair capability. Given enough time, it might be possible for them to get it fully operational again."

"Then that settles it," Admiral Reed said letting out a long breath. "Admiral Clements made it very plain when we left, that we were to engage and destroy any Cylon ships we came across. We can't let the Cylon Colony escape. We have to destroy it!"

"That's why he gave us the 100 megaton missiles," Admiral Landers replied recalling the six powerful missiles his ships were equipped with. "If we can get in close enough to get them past their defenses, the new missiles can destroy what is left of the Cylon Colony."

"The Colony will still have some pretty powerful defenses," Lisa warned noticing that the central part of the Colony was relatively intact. It looked as if there had been some serious damage in one area, in the center of the Colony, almost as if it had been rammed by something. Walking up to the view screen, she pointed to the central section. "This area here has a lot of defensive weapons as well as some offensive KEW batteries. There are also numerous missile tubes that will still be intact and probably loaded with nuclear warheads."

"We need a battle plan," Admiral Reed stated gazing at the screen. What Lisa had just said didn't surprise him. "This will not be easy; the nebula will reduce the effectiveness of our Dradis as well as communications."

"The same will be true of them Admiral," Lisa spoke. "Unless they have developed something totally new, their systems will be as limited as yours will be."

Four hours later the battle plan was complete. All four of the Jupiter class Battlestars and three of the Valkyries would jump into orbit around New Caprica and engage the six Basestars. Two of the Valkyries and all six of the Kobolan heavy escorts would remain behind to protect the rest of the fleet. All three of the Kobolan battle cruisers and the four Firestar Repulse class battle cruisers would hit the Cylon Colony. It would be a quick strike hopefully surprising the Cylons long enough to allow them to take out the Cylon's FTL drives.

Admiral Reed waited tensely in the CIC. He had jumped the attack force to just outside the nebula. Four stealth raptors had been dispatched to scan the Cylon ships to determine their exact position in relation to New Caprica. The waiting was always the hardest.

"They should be back at any moment," Commander Stramm spoke quietly, his eyes focused on the Dradis.

The entire CIC was quiet. Captain Angela Simms sat before her surveillance and sensor data screens nervously waiting. Her own sensors showed nothing and could not penetrate far into the protective nebula that shrouded New Caprica. She glanced over at Amanda and saw that she had a frightened look upon her face also. They had both been through combat before, but this time it was different. If they took out these Cylon ships, the Cylon menace would be substantially eliminated. It would only leave the Baseship and the few ships that had escaped with it from the Cylon home world.

Angela keyed her mini com to Amanda's. "Nervous Amanda?" she asked quietly not wanting to distract anyone.

"Frak yes!" Amanda replied looking over at Angela. "I hate this waiting, it just adds to my nerves."

"It won't be much longer," Angela replied looking at her sensors, which still showed nothing. "The raptors should be back at any moment." The words had barely left her lips when she saw Commander Stramm listen intently to his mini com and then turn to Admiral Reed. "Here we go Amanda."

"Raptors are back and are landing," Commander Stramm announced listening to the raptors pilots as they landed. "Coordinates for the targets are being uploaded now."

Admiral Reed looked over the operations table, which now was displaying the latest tactical information on the Cylon forces. He quickly assigned targets to his ships and ordered all units to go to Condition One. "I don't want any of them escaping," he stressed over his mini com to his ship commanders and Admiral Landers. "We end this part of the war here and now, we may never get an opportunity like this again! All ships standby to jump on my mark."

Six minutes later, all fourteen ships vanished in blue white flashes of light to appear around New Caprica and the Cylon Colony.

"Launching vipers," Commander Stramm reported as the ship's systems stabilized and the viper launch tubes came on line.

"Locking on primary target with main KEW batteries," the tactical officer reported as his hands flew over his console. He was also on his mini com talking to the other tactical officers to ensure that all weapons were on line and ready.

"Fire as soon as you have target lock," Commander Stramm ordered looking at the main view screen, which showed the massive Cylon Basestar in front of them, it nearly filled the entire screen.

Almost instantly, everyone in the CIC felt a slight shudder as the ship's four heavy bow KEW batteries fired. Massive rounds were expelled from the ship accelerated by powerfulagnetic fields to a fraction of the speed of light. Almost instantly, they impacted the Cylon Basestar tearing deep holes in its superstructure. Several massive explosions erupted from the Basestar as sensitive areas were breached by the deadly rounds.

"FTL drive is off line," Captain Simms reported as she scanned the Cylon Basestar with her sensors. "We must have hit some of their power relays."

"Cylons are launching raiders," Captain Bennett reported as red threat icons began to appear on his screen in ever growing numbers.

"All ships engaged," Commander Stramm reported as he listened to the combat reports coming in on his mini com.

On the Cylon Colony, several Cylons looked in disbelief and anger at the view screens, which showed the attacking Colonial ships. "How the frak did they find us and where did they come from?" Cavil spoke his eyes lit in anger.

"It means the Colonies have survived somehow," Doral spoke in shock taking a deep breath. "Our brethren must have failed in their attempt to eradicate the surviving Colonials."

"Admiral Clements," Cavil muttered shaking his head in anger. "Stephen warned John and me that Clements had survived and could be a potential danger. We didn't believe it."

"Doesn't matter, they found us," a Simon model spoke as he sent the orders through the information stream to activate the Colonies remaining defensive weapons. "Launching all remaining raiders."

Aboard the Zeus, Admiral Landers watched as the area between his ships and the Cylon Colony became covered in flak. "Take us in closer; our energy screens should protect us."

He then activated his fleet com and ordered the Apollo to launch both of her 100-megaton missiles at the portside of the Colony where the damage seemed the heaviest. Very few defensive weapons were being fired from that area of the Cylon Colony. He also ordered the four Firestars to close and fire their mega pulse lasers on the central area of the Colony where most of the weapons fire was coming from.

The Apollo quickly targeted her two missiles on the indicated part of the Colony and fired. The two deadly missiles were speeding toward their target when a Cylon raider darted in front of one of the missiles blowing it apart with cannon fire and deflecting the second off its course. The missile still impacted, but on the outer edge of the target area. A massive nuclear fireball erupted slamming into the Cylon Colony vaporizing a good quarter of the target area leaving behind a glowing mass of burning wreckage.

The Apollo shuddered as return fire in the form of a number of small tactical nuclear missiles struck the ship's energy screen. The missiles had been launched from a squadron of Cylon heavy raiders that were closing on the Apollo's position. The Apollo intensified her flak field and activated her defensive lasers to take out inbound missiles. She also began targeting the Cylon heavy raiders with her heavy pulse laser turrets.

"What the frak was that," Cavil screamed as the Colony shuddered and the lights flickered briefly. Warning alarms began sounding throughout the Cylon control center. He hadn't heard these alarms since Adama had launched his deceitful nuclear strike on the Colony.

"Our instruments report it was a nuke with a yield between 80 to 100 megatons," Simon reported pulling the data from the information stream. It struck the same area as Adama's nukes did. Most of that section of the Colony is gone!"

"We can't survive another one of those," Cavil raged glaring at the view screen, which showed seven large warships bearing down on the Colony. 'Where the frak did the Colonies get nukes that large? What type of ships are those, I don't' recognize them?"

"Those four that look like Battlestars are Repulse Class battle cruisers," Simon replied as he retrieved the data from the information stream. "None had ever been built prior to our attack on the Colonies. Those other three are unknowns. No ships like them are in the Colonial military data base."

"The FTL is still down," Doral stated shaking his head. "With the damage we have suffered we can't escape."

"This is all Adama's fault," Cavil screamed his eyes glaring at the view screens, which showed the attacking Colonial ships. "His sneak missile attack while we were under a flag of truce caused this. His treachery has doomed us. I told John not to trust the Colonials."

It was at that moment that four incredibly hot pulse laser beams cut into the center of the Colony. The beams heavily damaged the Hybrid room and the surrounding compartments causing all but two of the Hybrids to go off line. The Cylon defensive weapons fire was markedly reduced.

"What the frak was that?" Cavil demanded whirling around to glare at Simon.

"Mega pulse lasers," Simon replied turning pale. "They have either found a better energy source or have made a major breakthrough in their laser technology. We have nothing like that!"

"I know we don't!" Cavil spoke angrily looking back at the view screens. He had ordered all the fleet's raiders to come to the aid of the Colony. He knew the only chance they had was overwhelming the Colonials with their raiders, but he was afraid that this time even that wouldn't be enough.

Major Simms was in his command viper with six of his scorpion squadrons engaged against a massive wall of raiders trying to reach the Colony to defend it. In the distance, he could see a Cylon Basestar burning and another seemed to be heavily damage. "All squadrons, we must stop these Cylon raiders from reaching the Cylon Colony. Squadrons from the Hyperion will be here shortly."

Simms banked his viper sharply and fired one of his interceptor missiles, the targeted raider exploded in a brilliant fireball. Rolling back to his left, he brought his twin 30 millimeter cannons to bear on another raider and squeezed off a quick burst. His shells tore through the raider ripping into its Tylium tank. The raider blew apart in a brilliant orange fireball. Looking out of his cockpit window space was littered with exploding raiders and an occasional viper. They were heavily outnumbered. Glancing back at his Dradis screen, he saw that the Hyperion's squadrons were almost in range.

Admiral Reed grimaced as the Rycon shuddered from a nuclear strike. The Cylon Basestar was on its last legs, but was firing every missile it had left at the Rycon.

"Firing two Conqueror missiles," tactical reported as the two ten-megaton missiles blasted away from the bow tubes.

The Rycon shuddered and then a violet explosion pushed the massive ship over on her side. A lone Cylon twenty-megaton nuclear missile had penetrated the weakened energy shield and struck the ship on its lower bow.

"Frak," Commander Stramm uttered looking closely at the damage control board. "They blew a hole in our bow. I show six decks open to vacuum, and several more are reporting fires, damage control teams are in route."

"What about our weapons?" Admiral Reed demanded not wanting to be knocked out of the fight.

"We lost two of our bow missile tubes, one of the main KEW batteries, two defensive laser batteries, and six defensive turrets, all other weapons are still operational," Commander Stramm reported.

The two Conqueror missiles struck the Cylon Basestar unhindered as all the raiders had raced to the aid of the Colony. Two massive nuclear fireballs obliterated the Cylon ship leaving behind a glowing cloud of burning debris.

"Move us to the Cylon Colony, the other Battlestars can finish off the remaining Cylon Basestars," Admiral Reed ordered.

On the Cylon Colony, Cavil only shook his head. This was defeat; there was nothing they could do. However, he could still hurt the Colonials; make them pay for what they had done. Simon, Doral, and he put their hands in the information stream and triggered the Cylon Colonies self-destruct mechanism.

Admiral Landers was watching the main view screen when the Cylon Colony suddenly blew apart in a massive explosion.

"Get us back," he yelled knowing that the wave front would hit them shortly. They were too close! The Cylons must have exploded their entire remaining payload of nukes at once. This was the most massive explosion he had ever witnessed. The main view screen was now covered with the expanding wave front of wreckage, burning gases, and energy.

The expanding wave front rolled through the dog fighting raiders and vipers vaporizing them like insects, and then it stuck the warships. The Firestar Osiris exploded as its energy screen was overloaded and a massive piece of debris from the Cylon Colony smashed into the Colonial ship. The Kobolan battle cruiser Terra met a similar fate as she vanished in a massive fireball of expanding gas and wreckage. The other ships managed to pull back and escape the worst of the wave front even though every ship suffered some level of damage.

Admiral Landers stood in his CIC in shock. The ship was still shaking and vibrating from the after effects of the wave front. Glancing over at the damage control board, he saw numerous amber lights and several red ones. He had never expected something like this from the Cylons!

Major Streth looked over at Admiral Landers feeling numb. Glancing at the sensor screens, he saw that nearly every Cylon raider had died in the explosion, and most of the vipers had been wiped out also. Nearly six hundred vipers had been engaged against over eleven hundred Cylon raiders. Looking at the sensors, he knew that less than two squadrons of vipers had survived. In just a matter of a few seconds, the Cylons had wiped out nearly 3,000 of the fleet's military personnel.

Admiral Landers ordered all ships to form up and go into orbit around New Caprica. SAR raptors were dispatched from the three remaining Firestar Repulse class battle cruisers to search for survivors in the scattered wreckage of the Colonial vipers. Admiral Landers doubted that many would be found.

Major Simms command viper was floating powerless in space. He had been on the outer edge of the battle chasing down a Cylon heavy raider moving towards the Apollo when the wave front struck. His viper was heavily damaged, and his emergency beacon was on. He sat in his viper in shock. Most of his air group was destroyed, wiped out in the blazing death of the Cylon Colony. Over 100 vipers from the Rycon were gone and he suspected that hundreds of others from the other Colonial ships had met a similar fate. He could see a few survivors, but he had no idea if they belonged to any of his squadrons. He had spent months training these men and women, and now they were gone. Some he had gotten very close to, almost becoming friends. He wiped a tear from his eyes; the loss was just too great to bear.

Admiral Reed looked at the main view screen in shock. All that remained of the Cylon Colony was a glowing ball of flaming wreckage. The Terra and Osiris were gone as well as hundreds of vipers. Looking at the Dradis, he saw that all the Cylon Basestars had been destroyed.

"Send the Caprica to get the Crescent and the rest of the fleet," Admiral Reed ordered in a subdued voice. "We will need her repair bay."

…

Two days later Admiral Reed was down on the surface of New Caprica with General Cummins walking through the Colonial settlement.

"So the Cylons didn't destroy the settlement," Admiral Reed said looking around.

The few buildings that the Cylons had built were still mostly intact, but the actual Colonial settlement was in ruins. Some of it from the fighting, when Adama had rescued the Colonials from New Caprica, part due to the weather, and some from the new fighting that General Cummins marines had just finished.

General Cummins had landed over one thousand marines from the Marine Assault Vessel Guardian on the planet. They had made quick work of the few Cylon Centurions that were down on the surface.

"We've searched the area around the settlement and found no human survivors," General Cummins said as they came to a stop at a large open field next to the settlement.

Admiral Reed paused for a long minute as he gazed out across the field. Several thousand grave markers were plainly visible. Colonial grave markers. Someone had spent a lot of time burying and putting in place the markers after Admiral Adama and his fleet had left. Admiral Reed knew in his heart that the Cylons hadn't done this.

"Some Colonials had to have been left behind," he said shaking his head sadly. "It would have taken quite a few men and women to do all of this.

The squad of escorting marines were standing with their weapons held at the ready looking for any signs of danger. This large field of the dead made them all feel uneasy. It was quiet with no wind, and there was a slight chill in the air.

"We're going to be here at least another three weeks repairing our battle damage," Reed continued looking at the distant tree line. "I want this planet searched as thoroughly as possible. I want to know what happened to the people that did this."

"The Cylons from the Colony and their Basestars may have wiped out any human survivors when they arrived," General Cummins replied knowing that, with only one thousand marines on the surface, the search would be very difficult.

"I know," Admiral Reed spoke in a lower voice. "But if anyone survived, it's our duty to find them. Without any air transportation, they have to be somewhere in the general vicinity of this settlement. I want them found General Cummins."

"We will do our best sir," General Cummins replied. He knew that the smart thing to do would be to bring in some raptors and do a heat scan over the entire area.

In high New Caprica orbit, Admiral Landers was in the Crescent inspecting the battle cruiser Terra. The ship had suffered moderate damage when the Cylon Colony had exploded. He hadn't expected to lose a battle cruiser in the attack. He had thought his ship's energy shields would protect them from major damage. It had taught him an important lesson; never again would he underestimate an enemy.

The Zeus had already undergone repairs; the damaged Firestar battle cruisers would be next. Turning, he walked over to the Colonial raptor that would take him back to the Zeus. The good thing about the battle was that every Cylon Basestar and raider had been destroyed. Unless they ran into the Cylon Baseship and its fleet that had escaped from the Cylon home world, they shouldn't encounter any other Cylons between New Caprica and Earth.

Aboard the Rycon, Major Simms was seated at a desk looking over his pilot's roster. The Rycon had started out with eight squadrons of vipers. Two squadrons had remained behind to protect the Battlestar, and he had taken the other six to engage the Cylon raiders protecting the Cylon Colony. Out of 120 pilots, only 18 had survived to either return in their vipers to the Rycon or were picked up by SAR raptors.

Leaning back in his chair, he took a deep breath. In his mind, he could see many of the pilots that had been lost. He had slept little the last two nights. He kept wondering why he had been spared when so many young men and women under his command had died. Extra vipers and pilots had already been shuttled over from the Crescent.

One of the supply ships also had a number of crated vipers on board and those had been sent over to the ships that had lost viper wings. At the final count, they had lost 712 vipers and 22 raptors in the battle with the Cylons. That was over half of the fleet's total viper force. Counting the vipers from the Crescent and the supply ship, they could replace 320 of them. That would leave most of the ships with smaller strike wings. The Rycon herself would be down to six squadrons.

Angela and Amanda were eating a light meal before their duty shift began. Both had been very quiet. The sheer violence of the Cylon Colony's death had shaken everyone.

"So many died," Amanda said toying with her food, not feeling very hungry. "Why did it have to happen?"

"It's war," Angela replied taking a sip of water and looking at the other members of the crew who were eating. No one seemed to be talking much. "We knew from our orders that we might encounter the Cylons on this mission, we just didn't expect to encounter them at New Caprica."

"The marines have said that they found no survivors down on the surface, just a giant burial ground full of thousands of graves," Amanda spoke in a subdued voice. "I wonder what happened to the people who dug them?"

"We may never know Amanda," Angela said setting down her glass of water. "They buried their dead, perhaps they are still on New Caprica somewhere, but in hiding."

They finished their meal in silence thinking about what had happened down on New Caprica. Just like back on the Colonies, the Cylons had left devastation behind. Even when they entered the CIC, they noticed the silence. It would be days before the crew returned to normal.

…

Three weeks later, Admiral Reed was in the CIC of the Rycon. The ships of the fleet were once more formed up and ready to jump. He stared at the main view screen, which showed New Caprica beneath them. They had searched the entire area around the settlement and outwards for nearly 100 kilometers and had found no sign of human presence.

"We are ready to implement the first jump Admiral," Commander Stramm spoke. He was standing next to the Admiral and listening to the incoming reports on the mini com in his right ear.

"I want to return here someday," Admiral Reed spoke in a quiet voice. "I just feel that we have missed something down there. I don't know if it's human survivors or what, but I just feel like our job here isn't done."

"I feel the same way," Lisa spoke from her position on the opposite side of the operations table. "There is a mystery here that needs to be solved. I went down to the surface, and I can tell you that very few Cylons had been down to the settlement. They were mostly at the two mining installations we found, which your marines destroyed. If there were survivors here, I don't believe the Cylons killed them."

Admiral Reed let out a long breath. "Very well then, it's time to leave. Commander Stramm initiate the jump."

In just a few moments, the thirty-five remaining ships under Admiral Reed's command vanished in flashes of blue white light as they activated their FTL drives. Their next destination would be the Ionian Nebula.

Down on the surface of New Caprica it was dark, as the sun had already set. In a chain of rugged mountains, nearly three hundred kilometers from the original Colonial settlement, four men and two women stood in the entrance of a large cave complex. They watched as the bright specs above the planet vanished.

"Their gone," one of the women said with relief in her voice looking over at her companions.

"I still think we should have contacted them," one of the men said. He was dressed in the uniform of a Colonial fleet lieutenant.

"They might have forced us to go with them," one of the other men said. "We don't know what is out there or what has happened."

"Those were all Colonial ships," the lieutenant replied. "Somehow the colonies must have survived."

A blond Cylon six model and a dark brunette eight model walked up behind them gazing up at the dark night sky. "We don't know how they would have accepted us," the blond said. "We have accomplished so much here together."

A young child ran up from behind the two Cylons grabbing the blonde's hand. "Mom, the other kids are waiting," he spoke in his childish voice.

The Colonial lieutenant nodded taking his wife's hand. Turning the lieutenant and the blond Cylon walked back into the cave with their three year old son. The other's followed. They walked for several minutes before the cave tunnel widened and became a massive inner chamber nearly fifteen hundred meters across. In the center sat two Cylon heavy raiders, which had just barely fit through the large cave entrance.

Next to one wall, over twenty small comfortable homes had been built. A number of large greenhouses were also laid out close to them with power coming from one of the Cylon heavy raiders. A small stream of water ran across the far end of the cavern. This was the home to forty-two humans and twenty-six Cylons. There were also eighteen children, twelve of them born to human Cylon parents. In time, they would leave the cavern and spread out across New Caprica. At least on New Caprica, what had happened before would not happen again!

_It was never completely clear in the TV series whether the Cylon Colony had actually been destroyed when the Galactica activated her FTL drive. We can assume that the Galactica's FTL jump caused even more damage to the Cylon Colony. I assumed that it survived, but just barely and heavily damaged._

_When the surveillance raptor jumped in to check on the Cylon Colony's actual location, the pilots mentioned that they had seen several Basestars jump in and then jump back out. In the battle with the Colony, there were no Basestars involved. So obviously, the Basestars survived._

_I am considering doing a full-length novel called The Ovion Kobolan war. Please go to my Profile page and then to my website to read a short excerpt. Let me know what you think. This will be a major undertaking and I want to make sure there is enough interest before I do this. There is also only one more story, Return to Earth, in this story line that I am currently doing._

_As always, thanks for your interest and the reviews!_


	6. Chapter 6

Admiral Reed was sitting in his command chair in the CIC. For several hours, he had been glancing over at the operations table then back at the main view screen. The Rycon and the rest of the fleet were just outside of the Ionian Nebula. The entire fleet was setting 100 million kilometers from the outer edge. Professor Anthon had been very adamant about the fleet not entering any section of the gaseous nebula, but would not explain why.

Commander Stramm was standing next to the operations table watching as new data from Captain Simm's sensors was constantly being updated. He took a deep breath glancing over at Admiral Reed. For two long days, the fleet had been holding this position waiting on word from Professor Anthon. Commander Stramm was starting to get a little impatient. He also wondered if he should conduct a few surprise drills to keep the crew on their toes.

"I wonder how much longer this waiting game is going to last?" Commander Stramm said to Admiral Reed stifling a yawn. "Our CAP vipers report no contacts, and the raptors we have out on long range scout report the same. There is no sign of any ships, either Colonial or Cylon."

Admiral Reed let out a sigh and nodded his head in agreement. "I don't know David. But Professor Anthon indicated that he needed to take some sensor readings of the nebula for several days before he is ready for us to continue."

"But what is he looking for?" Commander Stramm asked looking at another view screen, which showed the Exploration Ship Explorer.

Commander Stramm knew that there were numerous Kobolan scientists as well as a few Colonial scientists on that ship. That was one reason why it had such heavy defensive armaments. There was also at least one Kobolan heavy escort in close proximity to the exploration ship at all times. He had also been surprised to learn that there were also 100 heavily armed Kobolan marines on board to provide security. However, another question was bothering him. Why did they need so many high caliber scientists on this mission? What were they not being told?

For the last several days, the Explorer had been launching survey raptors to different areas of space just outside of the nebula. The Explorer had even launched several probes into the outer fringes of the gaseous nebula as if searching for something. When asked why, Professor Anthon had replied that it was necessary for some of the sensor readings he needed. Stramm shook his head looking over at Lisa who was standing a short distance next to Angela Simms sensor console staring at the view screen. None of this made any sense to him.

"Why is this nebula so important in going to Earth?" Commander Stramm asked. "Why did we have to stop here to begin with? If he knows the coordinates why don't we just go there?"

"I think the nebula is very important in some way," Lisa broke in as she walked over to the operations table. The blond Cylon had been standing next to Angela watching the sensor information come in over the data screens.

"Daniel told be before we left that the Final Five had also gone to the Ionian Nebula before coming to the Twelve Colonies," Lisa said glancing down at the operations table and the stellar information being displayed. "I also know that Professor Anthon was very excited by some of the data we sent him about the Final Five's voyage to the colonies."

"Do you know why?" Commander Stramm asked hoping that Lisa might know something. It seemed to him like they were just wasting time instead of going straight to Earth.

"No," Lisa replied gazing at the Commander with her blue eyes. "Daniel only said that according to Professor Anthon, the only viable course to Earth is through the nebula."

Admiral Reed stood and walked the few short steps to the operations table looking down at the stellar data being displayed. It showed the nebula and the surrounding space for about five light years around it. Then glancing over at Captain Simms he asked. "Still nothing new on your sensors?"

"No sir," Captain Simms replied. Angela had been using her advanced sensors to try to scan the nebula, but they were too far away in astronomical terms to get any decent readings. Several of her sensors did record a few strange energy readings occasionally, but not anything to be of concern or danger to the fleet. "The Silent Seeker reports the same. They have detected no drive emission other than our own. However, they have reported a few sensor spikes when they scan the nebula, but they have no idea what might be causing them."

"It's a nebula," Commander Stramm spoke shaking his head. "There are numerous stellar phenomenons that can cause sensor ghosts in a nebula. It's not that unusual."

"Cylon Basestars had problems in nebulas with their sensors also," Lisa said with an understanding nod. "Both the Cylon Basestars and Galactica's fleet lost power when they jumped into this nebula. There is something in this nebula that's different from anything we have encountered before. I don't know of anything that can drain a Basestar's power like the rebel Basestar Commander reported."

…

Major Aaron Simms was in his command viper checking on the CAP. He preferred doing so several times a day to keep his pilots on their toes. After the battle with the Cylon Colony at New Caprica, it had been necessary to reconstitute the squadrons on the Rycon. They had lost over 100 pilots in the battle when the Cylon Colony had exploded.

Aaron tried his best not to think about that harrowing moment when the blast wave from the destruction of the Cylon Colony had swept across the vipers and Cylon raiders, which were locked in combat. He had been helpless and unable to do anything as his squadrons died. If not for the heavier armor in his command viper and being on the far side of the battle, he would have died also. Sometimes Aaron wished that he would have.

Looking out his cockpit window, he could see the gaseous nebula, which dominated everything in front of the fleet. A full half of the view was filled with the large nebula. Glancing away, he saw the Kobolan hospital ship Mercy floating in space next to the two super colony ships. The Mercy was built off a Kobolan battle cruiser hull, but had been designed to serve as a fleet hospital ship. Both of the two super colony ships had come originally from Admiral Kronus at Shadow Base. Admiral Stone had escaped with them when he had returned from Demeter and learned of the Cylon attack upon the colonies.

Checking his Dradis, he was satisfied that the new pilots assigned to the Rycon were doing okay. It was still difficult for him to think about all the pilots lost at New Caprica. He had never expected to lose so many pilots at once. The chance of encountering the Cylons on this mission had been deemed a low probability. Even though they had been instructed to engage any they might come across by

Admiral Clements. Taking a deep breath, he turned his viper and flew down along the side of the Rycon looking at the mighty Jupiter Class Battlestar. Its defensive turrets, KEW batteries, and laser turrets dotted the hull. All the damage from the battle at New Caprica had been repaired, and there was not a single blemish visible.

…

On the Exploration Ship Explorer, Professor Anthon looked at the latest data from the raptors and the probes he had deployed. He plugged the information into a complicated mathematical formula and gazed at the results with a knowing nod. His daughter Denise looked over his shoulders still not believing what she was seeing.

"Are you sure about this data Dad?" she asked with wide almost unbelieving eyes. The math her father had used for these calculations was far above her head, and she knew a lot about math.

"Yes, it matches what is in the Cylon Mainframe's memory banks from the voyage of the Final Five," he replied looking back at his daughter with a tired smile. He had gotten very little rest the last several days. This discovery was just too exciting.

"It also confirms what was in the data base of the rebel Cylon Basestar," he continued taking a deep breath. "No, there can be no doubt. This data is real!"

"Then we need to tell Admiral Reed and Admiral Landers," Denise said wondering how Admiral Reed would react to this. "This could adversely affect his mission to find the Galactica. No one in this fleet is expecting what you are about to tell them."

"It doesn't have to change the mission," her father replied raising his eyebrows. "There will be some risk, but just think of what we might learn."

"I'll contact the two Admirals and tell them we're ready," Denise said wondering how they would take the news they were about to receive.

…

An hour later Admiral Reed, Admiral Landers, and Lisa were in a conference room aboard the Explorer with Professor Anthon and his daughter. They had all three been relieved to finally hear from Professor Anthon. Perhaps now they would learn what all of this was about.

"What we are about to show you is remarkable," Denise began looking at the three. "As you know when my father received the stellar data from the Cylon Mainframe and the rebel Basestar we ran it through our astronomical data base on Terra."

"There was no match," Professor Anthon said rising and walking over to a screen, which showed the nebula. "We could find no star configurations that matched what was in the data bases."

"What!" Admiral Landers said looking confused. "I thought you knew the path to Earth?"

"You said you had the coordinates!" Lisa spoke looking confused.

"I do," Professor Anthon replied with an enigmatic smile. Activating his com, he sent orders for a probe to be launched into the heart of the nebula. "Please observe the view screen. We have a series of probes on the fringe of the nebula that allows us to monitor the center. The probe we are launching is equipped with a small FTL drive, and it will jump into the heart of the nebula."

Everyone turned to watch the nebula, and after a few minutes, a bright green dot registered as the probe jumped to the nebula's center.

"Okay," Admiral Reed said looking confused. "The probe made it, why can't we enter the nebula with our fleet?"

"Just wait," Professor Anthon said looking at a counter on the bottom of the screen, which was rapidly counting down to zero.

After slightly more than a minute, the counter on the screen reached zero and the green blip on the screen vanished.

"Why did it jump?" Admiral Landers asked shaking his head. None of this made any sense.

"It didn't jump," Denise replied with a mysterious smile. "It didn't jump at all, it's still there."

"But why can't we see it on the screen?" Admiral Reed asked looking at the Professor.

"Did something destroy it?" Lisa asked looking intently at the screen, but there was no green dot there. What was going on?

"Because it is no longer in our time," Professor Anthon replied in a serious tone of voice. "It has been transferred back 150,000 years into our past."

"That's impossible!" Admiral Landers exclaimed his eyes growing wide. "That can only happen in a black hole and even then its only theory. No ship could survive the attempt."

"How is this possible?" Lisa asked gazing at the older scientist. Some of the cryptic remarks David had made before she left to go on this mission began to make sense now. He had warned her to expect the unexpected. That things would not be as they seem.

"Ah but here we have a special set of circumstances," Professor Anthon replied with a mysterious excited smile. He pressed a button on the screen and a schematic of the nebula appeared with eight flashing red icons.

"What are those?" Admiral Reed asked with an unsettling feeling that he was not going to like the answer. Anything in red usually meant bad news.

"Those Admiral Reed are gravity generators," Denise replied. "Those are massive artificial gravity generators. Every forty minutes they send out a massive synchronous gravity wave, which tears a hole in space-time, in the center of the nebula. Anything that is in that location is transported back 150,000 years."

"That's not possible," Lisa said shaking her head. "You must be wrong."

"I assure you what my daughter just said is correct," Professor Anthon replied looking at the three. "Those are indeed gravity generators."

"Who could build such a thing?" Admiral Landers asked with disbelief in his voice. The technology to build something like this was beyond imagining.

"That we don't know," Professor Anthon replied glancing at the screen. "We have tried to send several probes to their locations, but the probes stop reporting as soon as they arrive. What we do know is that they have been there for at least 45 to 50 years and have been sending out these pulses every 40 minutes."

"Something like that is far beyond any science we know of," Admiral Reed spoke with a worried feeling in the pit of his stomach. Someone with that type of technology would look at one of his Battlestars as more of a minor nuisance than a threat. The universe had suddenly gotten much bigger and potentially more dangerous.

Professor Anthon spent some time explaining to the two Admirals and Lisa just how the gravity waves from all eight gravity generators worked together to tear a hole in the space-time continuum for a brief period of time.

"You're saying that the Final Five, the Cylons, and Galactica's fleet went through that tear in space," Admiral Landers said with sudden understanding.

"Precisely," Professor Anthon replied nodding his head slowly. "The Earth the Final Five came from is 150,000 years in the past. The Cylon Colony and the rebel Basestar also went through but returned."

"How?" Admiral Reed asked with wide eyes. He had expected nothing like this. How would this affect his rescue mission?

Professor Anthon looked at the screen, which was displaying another counter. It to was counting down. "Nearly 40 minutes have passed, watch the screen."

Everyone turned their attention back to the screen, and after a few minutes, the counter reached zero and a green dot reappeared in the center of the nebula.

"Due to the nature of the gravity waves the probe is powerless, and it will take a few minutes for its system to power back up. It will then jump back to us." Professor Anthon spoke. "When the probe was struck by the gravity waves all of its internal power was lost, it then fell through the tear in space going back 150,000 years. Once there it regenerated its power and could have jumped out from the center of the nebula. But we had ordered it to stay in the center and maintain its position so when the next set of gravity waves reopened the tear it would fall back through returning to us."

"We have sent several probes through the tear in space and had them make small jumps to just outside the nebula. We had them scan the space around them and transmit that data back to another probe setting in the center," Denise continued. "That probe returned with the data. From the stars that we can see, and then matching them with what's in our data base, we know that the probes went back 149,982 years in the past."

"That's what you found in the data the Cylons sent you," Admiral Reed said looking at Denise.

"Yes," Denise replied. "When my father received the data he was confused why the stellar patterns didn't match up. After further investigation, he realized that the stars were just in the wrong positions. After 150,000 years, even star patterns change slightly. When he made adjustments for Stellar drift due to the passage of time he managed to get the star formations to match up, but they showed 150,000 years had passed since those star formations existed."

"You're telling us that the Galactica and her fleet are back in time 150,000 years," Admiral Landers said with a pale, shocked look on his face.

"Yes," Professor Anthon replied calmly. "The Cylon fleet jumped into the nebula first and lost power and fell through the tear, sometime later Admiral Adama and his fleet jumped into the nebula, and their power was drained and they went through also.

"Both fleets fell through the tear in space-time," Admiral Reed repeated shaking his head. He was still finding all of this hard to believe. "Why didn't the Cylons come back to the present when Adama went through?"

"The Cylons had drifted a considerable distance away from the tear and were not pulled back through when Adama and his fleet arrived," Denise continued recalling all the information they had gone over trying to piece together just what had happened. "When the Cylons saw the Colonial ships they assumed they had jumped in with their FTL drives and moved back in to engage and launched their raiders."

"This is fantastic," Lisa uttered as she tried to understand everything they were being told. "Neither fleet knew they had been transported to the past."

"That's correct," Denise replied. "But during the brief battle one of the raiders detected a member of the Final Five in one of the vipers."

"Because of their programming they could not harm one of the Final Five, and as a result, the raiders refused to complete the attack," Lisa said recalling what the rebel Basestar Commander had reported. "The Basestars and the Colonials both jumped away, but they had already been transported back in time 150,000 years by the gravity waves."

"Yes," Professor Anthon replied nodding. "From what I have been able to determine the tear in space stays open for sixteen minutes before it closes again. Anything that jumps into the tear during that time will be transported back."

Admiral Reed was quiet for several long moments. "But that means that the Thirteenth Tribe went through the nebula and were transported back originally. The Earth the Final Five came from is 150,000 years in the past."

"That means that those gravity machines have been here for over two thousand years, or since the exodus from Kobol," Admiral Landers commented looking at Professor Anthon.

"I had forgotten about that," Professor Anton replied not believing he could have overlooked that important fact. "But yes, that would mean the gravity generators have been here for at least 2,000 years."

'By the Gods of Kobol," Admiral Reed uttered amazed. "Who could build machines that would last that long and still work?"

"We may never know," Professor Anthon replied. "We have not seen any traces of other ships or machines of any kind other than the eight gravity wave generators. And as I said earlier, for some reason we can't even get near them."

"What do we do now?" Admiral Reed asked looking at the other four. "How do we rescue the Galactica and her fleet if 150,000 years separates them from us?"

"It's simple," Professor Anthon replied raising his eyebrows. "We take the fleet through the tear in space-time at the heart of the nebula."

"What!" Admiral Reed exclaimed looking surprised. He couldn't endanger the entire fleet by doing something like that.

"It should be perfectly safe," Denise replied with a nod. "We take the fleet through the tear, rescue the Galactica and her fleet, and then return the same way."

"That's how the Cylons got back," Professor Anthon commented. "The ones you found at New Caprica, they came back through the tear."

For the next several hours, the five debated the issue. Admiral Reed and Admiral Landers asking numerous questions and Professor Anthon and his daughter doing their best to answer them. In the end, Admiral Reed agreed to send a manned raptor through; if the raptor came back intact and the crew unharmed then Admiral Reed would consider sending part of the fleet through. However, under no conditions would he send the entire fleet through. He couldn't afford the risk of losing so many warships of the colonies if the fleet went though the tear and couldn't come back.

...

The next day, Major Aaron Simms sat in a raptor just on the edge of the nebula. He was alone in the raptor since it had been decided not to risk more than one pilot on this mission.

"Major Simms are you ready to jump into the nebula?" Commander Stramm asked over the com system.

"Yes sir," Aaron replied feeling a little nervous about the mission he had volunteered for. If what they had told him was correct, he was going 150,000 years back into the past. "FTL drive is spun up, just waiting for the go order."

"Very well, you may initiate your jump, good luck Major," Commander Stramm said.

Taking a deep breath, Aaron reached forward and pressed the FTL execute button. He felt the familiar nausea associated with a jump and then he was inside the nebula. For six minutes, he sat in the raptor looking at the nebula around him waiting for something to happen.

Then suddenly it did, all the lights in the raptor went out. He knew that meant he was probably falling through the tear. Two minutes later the systems booted back up, and power started to slowly return. Once he had enough power to jump, he quickly entered the second jump into the FTL and pressed the execute button. The raptor jumped back to just outside the nebula where the fleet had been.

The raptor reappeared in a blue white flash of light. Once the systems stabilized, Aaron looked at his Dradis. There were no contacts. The fleet wasn't here. Aaron felt a chill run down his back knowing that the fleet was 150,000 years in the future. He was truly alone.

Taking a deep breath, he activated the raptor's sensors and cameras and for the next hour photographed all the surrounding space. At the end of that time, he once again activated the FTL drive and jumped back into the heart of the nebula. If he had timed it just right, the tear should be close to opening. After several minutes, the raptor once more lost power. Aaron waited nervously for the power to return. When the lights finally came back on, and the FTL spun back up, he jumped the raptor back outside the nebula.

Aaron breathed a nervous sigh of relief when the jump was complete and then waited tensely as the Dradis came back up. Letting out a long breath, he saw the familiar green blips on the screen.

"Welcome back major," Commander Stramm said over the com. "Land as quickly as possible on the Explorer. Professor Anthon wants to analyze your data."

"So he made it back safely," Admiral Reed said watching the main view screen in the Rycon's CIC, which showed the raptor moving toward the Explorer.

"Then it is safe," Lisa said looking thoughtfully at Admiral Reed. "What are you going to do now?"

"You're not really thinking about taking the fleet through the nebula are you?" Commander Stramm asked nervously. Combat he could handle, but this was something else.

"I haven't decided yet," Admiral Reed replied looking at the two across the operations table. "We need to analyze the data from the raptor then I will make a decision."

…

Two days later Admiral Reed stood in the CIC of the Rycon staring at the main view screen. The decision had been made; he was going to take part of the fleet through the tear in space-time. It had taken a lot of thought and discussion with Admiral Landers and Professor Anthon for him to come to this decision. However, the final decision was based on one simple fact. He had been sent to rescue the Galactica and her fleet, and they had gone through the tear. He had to follow. He just hoped Admiral Clements would understand.

Commander Stramm was over at the Dradis console talking to Captain Jason Bennett. He wanted the Captain to be perfectly aware of just what was about to happen. They would jump into the nebula, and then precisely ten minutes later the gravity waves would strike. The ship would lose power and they would fall through the tear. However, as soon as power returned to the Dradis he needed to check the location of every ship in the fleet quickly. They didn't want any inadvertent collisions as a result of the loss of power.

"Are you ready for this?" Lisa asked looking over at Admiral Reed. She was standing next to him gazing at the view screen, wondering what they would find on the other side.

"As ready as can be," Admiral Reed replied in a quiet tone of voice. He looked at another view screen, which showed the Kobolan Battle Cruiser Zeus. It floated in space next to the Explorer.

None of the Kobolan warships were going through the tear. Admiral Landers had been very explicit on that. He had strict orders from Admiral Crius that prevented the Explorer and Professor Anthon from going through the tear, and he had to stay to protect them. Also with the possible new Ovion threat, he couldn't risk the rest of his fleet by going through the tear in the nebula. Terra had made it very plain from the start that while the Professor and the other scientists could go on this mission, their lives could not be put in jeopardy.

The fleet had been divided into two battle groups. The Kobolan warships, plus the Jupiter Class Battlestar Pacifica would remain behind. So also would all five of the Valkyrie Class Battlestars. Admiral Reed agreed with Admiral Landers in that respect. Even he wasn't willing to risk his entire battle group. Two of the Tylium tankers and the Crescent would also remain behind. The rest of the fleet would go through the tear.

"Five minutes Admiral," Denise Anthon reported from her position next to Captain Simms at the ship's main sensors.

Admiral Landers had allowed Denise to go along since her expertise on the tear might come in useful. It had been a hard decision for the Admiral, but Denise had gone into danger before. If for some reason she didn't return, it would probably mean some dire consequences for him when they returned to Terra.

Lisa and Admiral Reed walked back over to the operations table, which showed the current position of all the ships making the jump. Each commander had been briefed on what to expect. You could sense the growing tension in the CIC.

"One minute Admiral," Denise reported looking over at Angela who was also watching the data screens.

Admiral Landers looked around the CIC. Everyone was ready.

"Time," Denise reported looking over at the Admiral.

"Jump," Admiral Reed ordered looking up at the main view screen.

In flashes of blue white light all the ships going on the mission rapidly vanished. One by one, they reappeared in the heart of the nebula.

"All ships present and in assigned positions," Captain Bennett reported as he scanned the Dradis and the data coming across his screens.

"Now we wait," Admiral Reed said folding his arms across his chest and looking across the operations table at Lisa. He noticed that Lisa looked a little pale. The female Cylon was evidently very nervous about what they were about to do.

The ten minutes passed by quickly and then Denise looked over at the Admiral nodding her head. "Twenty seconds Admiral!"

Moments later, all the lights in the CIC went out. For nearly a minute, it seemed as if the entire Battlestar had died. No air was moving, and there was no hum from the engines. Even the voices in the CIC were quiet. Everyone was waiting.

Then the lights began flickering and after another moment came slowly back to full strength. Consoles began to come back to life.

At the Dradis console, Commander Stramm and Captain Bennett watched intensely as the Dradis powered back up. Both looked up scanning the green contacts rapidly looking for problems.

"Frak," Commander Stramm said activating his mini com gazing intently at the screen. He quickly ordered one of the Tylium tankers and one of the Firestar Battle Cruisers to change course, they were less then forty seconds from colliding.

Admiral Reed watched as the two ships activated their maneuvering jets and barley managed to avoid each other. Main engines were still not on line for any of the fleet. "Let's get the fleet back into formation as soon as we have enough power to restart the engines," he ordered. "I want all FTL drives spun up as soon as we have sufficient reserve power."

He knew from what Professor Anthon and Denise had told him that they should be drifting away from the tear. For some reason, their fall through the tear gave the fleet some slight forward momentum that helped to carry them away from it.

Thirty minutes later, all FTL drives were spun up, and they were ready to jump. Admiral Reed looked over at Commander Stramm and nodded.

"Jump," Commander Stramm ordered.

The entire fleet jumped and reappeared just outside the nebula.

"Report," Reed demanded looking at the large Dradis screen and then back to Captain Simms and her sensors.

"All ships are in their positions," Captain Bennett reported quickly scanning the screen. "I am showing no other contacts."

"Sensors are checking stellar positions," Denise reported as she waited for the data to start appearing on the screens.

"CAP vipers are being launched," Commander Stramm reported as he listened to the landing bay over his mini com.

Admiral Reed looked up at the main view screen, which showed the nebula. It filled the screen. He wondered if they had really traveled 150,000 years into the past. It still seemed so fantastic. He wondered how he would ever explain this to Admiral Clements. It would be a lot easier if he had the Galactica and her fleet with him.

Several minutes passed then Denise looked over at Admiral Reed. "It's confirmed sir," she said in a slightly excited voice. "The sensors have matched the star formations with what was in the rebel Basestar's data base. We have traveled back 150,000 years."

The entire CIC was silent as everyone looked at each other. Many had found the concept of traveling back in time 150,000 years to be inconceivable, but here they were.

Angela and Amanda looked at each other across the CIC, both wondering if they would ever see home again or would they become stranded in the past. Everyone they knew that were still back in the colonies hadn't even been born yet.

Admiral Reed looked over at Lisa and then back to Commander Stramm. "I guess we're here. Now let's go find Earth and the Galactica. We have some people we need to rescue!"

…

_Author's note: In the TV series there never was an explanation given as to why all the ships lost power in the nebula. In my final story of this series, Return to Earth, you will learn more about the builders of the gravity generators. I never liked the idea that Earth, as we know it was 150,000 years in the future. I thought that was a cheap cop out. It was almost as if they were saying this is it for Battlestar Galactica; **there can be no more!**_

_As far as the Cylon Colony goes, I went back and watched the nuclear strike on the Colony. It didn't show the Colony actually falling into the Black Hole. My belief was that if the Galactica could survive a nuclear strike, why shouldn't the Colony, which was many times larger than the Galactica not be able to survive multiple strikes? Even though it showed the Colony heavily damaged in the TV series, it also showed large parts of the Colony that were undamaged. I wanted to put to rest once and for all, what the final fate of the Colony was. It would have been easy to say it just fell into the Black Hole as the writers of the series have alluded to, but to put it bluntly. I just wanted to destroy it myself! _

_Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Also, don't forget to check out my profile and my webpage. I hope this New Year has a lot of wonderful possibilities for everyone that reads my stories. Best of luck to everyone!_

_There are still a number of really big surprises ahead. While this story will tie up some of the loose ends from the TV series, my final story, Return to Earth, will tie up the rest of them, or nearly all._


	7. Chapter 7

Angela Simms, Denise Anthon, and Amanda Billings were all sitting at a table in the ship's main cafeteria eating their evening meal. It had been a busy day for all three of them as the Rycon and her rescue fleet had begun a series of jumps towards Earth. It was still hard to accept that they were 150,000 years in the past, but Denise had assured the other two that was indeed the case.

"How is all this possible?" Amanda asked thankful to be away from her communications console for a while. A decent meal and then some sleep was something she was looking forwards to.

"My father explained everything to me," Denise replied taking a small sip of the red colored ambrosia in her glass. "It has long been theorized that intense gravity fields could bend or warp space, such as in a black hole. If the black hole isn't rotating and if exotic matter is available, then a traversable wormhole can be used to travel instantaneously to another space and possibly another time. At least theoretically."

"Wow!" Amanda replied with wide eyes and shaking her head slowly. "I read about such things at the fleet academy in some of my science classes, but I never believed it could be possible."

"So you're saying that the eight gravity generators your father detected in the nebula are causing this wormhole or rift in space time," Angela commented trying to recall what she had learned in her own classes at the academy. She had taken some heavier science classes at the academy including particle physics. This was to allow her to better understand what could affect sensor readings on a Battlestar.

"Yes," Denise replied nodding her head. "However, in this case it's not a worm hole, but a rift or tear in space time caused by the intense gravity waves the eight gravity generators are creating. That's why exotic matter isn't needed."

"What's exotic matter?" Amanda asked looking confused.

"Anti matter," Denise replied. "Or other matter with an opposite charge compared to the matter around it. It would be used to hold the worm hole open long enough to allow a ship to pass through."

The girls were silent for a few minutes as they thought about where they were and how they had gotten here. Their meals were served, and they slowly began to eat. They wondered if they would ever see home again, or would they be trapped 150,000 years away from everything and everyone they knew.

"Do you think the Galactica and her fleet made it to Earth?" Amanda asked as she finished off her salad. She was trying to watch her weight and had cut out some of the fattier foods from her diet.

"It's possible," Angela replied slicing a small piece off the steak she was eating. "From what the Admiral has said about Adama, if anyone could get the fleet to Earth it would be him."

Around them, other crewmembers ate quietly all were nervous about this mission. Talking was subdued, and everyone was unsure where all this might lead.

Admiral Reed was in his office with Lisa. Commander Stramm was still in the CIC but would be retiring to his quarters shortly. There were no additional jumps planned until early in the morning. It would take two weeks of four jumps per day for the fleet to reach the coordinates that Professor Anthon had furnished them for Earth.

"It's still hard for me to believe I am sitting in my office with a Cylon," Admiral Reed commented pouring Lisa a small glass of amber ambrosia from the bottle on his desk.

"Same here," Lisa replied smiling. "I never thought I would be sharing a drink with a Colonial Fleet Admiral."

"So what are your plans after we find the Galactica and return to the Colonies?" Admiral Reed asked gazing at the amber colored Ambrosia in his glass.

"It depends on what we find on Earth," Lisa replied taking a small sip from her glass. "We know there is at least one rebel Basestar with the Galactica. They have been on Earth for a little over two years assuming they found it shortly after arriving in this time."

"I wonder how many are still alive?" Admiral Reed commented leaning back and closing his eyes briefly in thought. "The Galactica and her fleet had a rough time with John and his forces. I still find it hard to believe they survived. We may arrive at Earth and find nothing there!"

Lisa was silent for a moment. She had wondered about that also. The Cylon Colony had obviously been in a fight, and if it had been with the Galactica, she didn't see how the Colonial Battlestar could have survived. However, stranger things then that had happened over the last several years.

"When we return to the Colonies, Daniel and I will be traveling to Terra to talk to some Kobolan scientists," Lisa spoke recalling her last conversation with Daniel just prior to the fleet leaving. "We want to find out if they have a solution to the infertility problem with Cylon physiology, so we can have children. If they can't solve the problem, then in a few generations there won't be a Cylon race."

Admiral Reed was silent for a moment. In the back of his mind, he wondered if that might not be best. To go ahead and allow the Cylon race to die out and never be a threat again. Nevertheless, the pattern had to be broken. For some reason, he knew the future depended on the surviving Colonials and the surviving Cylons learning to live together without fear.

"The Kobolan scientists are very advanced in some fields," Admiral Reed ventured with a small nod of his head. "They are familiar with the Thirteenth Tribe and obviously solved their reproductive problems. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they can solve yours also."

"I hope so Admiral," Lisa replied with a faraway look in her deep blue eyes. "I would like to see my race live and begin a history of peace and discovery. I don't want us to be remembered as destroyers and harbingers of death. I have always wondered what it would be like to have a child of my own."

"The future is still ahead of us," Admiral Reed replied softly understanding how Lisa felt. "Hopefully together we can make it a good one."

…

Two weeks later, Admiral Reed, Lisa, and Commander Stramm were all in the CIC. The fleet had just jumped into a solar system close to Earth. One more jump and they would be there.

"I want the Silent Seeker to use her sensors to see if she can detect any energy readings from Earth," Admiral Reed ordered.

He watched as Commander Stramm relayed the order to Colonel Greenview on the Silent Seeker. They were six light years from Earth and the Silent Seeker's sensors should be able to detect any ships in orbit around the planet.

"Do you think they will detect anything?" Lisa asked her blue eyes focusing on the Admiral. She hoped there were additional Cylon survivors on the planet.

"I hope so," Admiral Reed replied knowing that their search for the Galactica was just about over. "Some of the ships probably landed on the surface, but the Galactica and the rebel Basestar should still be in orbit as well as some of the larger civilian ships."

Minutes passed as they waited for a response from the Silent Seeker. The CIC was quiet, as everyone knew the fleet was only one jump away from Earth and the home of the fabled Thirteenth Tribe. They all knew the fate of the Thirteenth Tribe, but everyone in the crew hoped to find the Galactica and her survivors making it their new home.

"Reports coming in," Commander Stramm announced as he listened on his mini com to Colonel Greenview. "They have detected one energy reading in the system. From all indications, it's a Cylon Basestar. They are not detecting any other power sources." Commander Stramm looked over at Admiral Reed and Lisa with a confused look on his face.

"Only the Basestar," Lisa echoed surprised. "Where is the Galactica and the rest of the fleet? If there are ships on the ground, we should be detecting some power readings!" Had she been right about the Galactica being destroyed in the battle with the Cylon Colony?

"I don't know," Admiral Reed replied not liking what he had just heard. Where was the Galactica? "The other question is what Basestar is that we're detecting. Is it the rebel Basestar or another one?"

"There is only one way to find out," Commander Stramm spoke gazing at Admiral Reed. "We have the fire power to take out the Basestar if necessary."

"I agree," Admiral Reed replied knowing they had no other choice. "Have the fleet go to condition one, and prepare to jump the fleet. I want our vipers in the tubes and ready to be deployed as soon as we complete the jump. All weapons to lock on the Cylon Basestar until we find out just what is going on."

Twelve minutes later, all FTL drives were spun up, and the fleet vanished in blue white flashes of light leaving nothing but empty space behind. The ships reappeared in the targeted system with the Battlestars Rycon, Prometheus, and Hyperion at the front of the fleet and nearest the Cylon Basestar. The three Firestar Battle Cruisers appeared around the support fleet maintaining a protective posture.

"All ships in designated post jump positions," Captain Bennett reported as his Dradis screens cleared and the friendly green dots of their fleet appeared. There was one glaring red icon just to the front of the fleet.

"Range to Cylon Basestar is 200,000 kilometers sir," Captain Bennett continued as he began to scan for Cylon raiders.

Pressing the fleet com Admiral Reed quickly addressed the fleet captains. "The Prometheus and the Rycon will proceed to engage the Cylon Basestar. All other ships will remain in their current positions."

The two ships broke off from the fleet and began to move toward the lone Cylon target. Strangely enough, the Cylon Basestar wasn't launching raiders.

"I don't understand this," Commander Stramm commented watching the operations table, which was displaying the latest tactical data. "That Basestar is just setting there doing nothing."

"It must be the rebel Basestar we heard about," Lisa replied gazing at the main view screen, which now showed the Cylon ship. "Since we're Colonial vessels it doesn't see us as a threat."

The two Jupiter Class Battlestars continued to close the distance each launching two squadrons of vipers as a precautionary measure. Laser and KEW turrets turned slightly until they were pointed at the Cylon Basestar.

Major Aaron Simms brought his command viper and squadron around to take up a position just forward and above the Rycon. This would keep them out of the Rycon's firing solution and still allow his vipers to intercept any Cylon raiders. He just hoped his new pilots were up for this. On his Dradis screen, he saw the other viper squadron from the Rycon take up a similar position below and forward of the Battlestar. The two squadrons from the Prometheus did the same thing. Aaron watched his Dradis screen intently searching for any signs of Cylon raiders.

"Sir, this is crazy," Captain Bennett broke in excitedly from his Dradis console looking over at the Admiral. The Cylon icon on the screen had just changed from a threatening red to a friendly green. "The Cylon Basestar is broadcasting the Galactica's recognition codes!"

"What," Commander Stramm stammered looking up at the Dradis screen in confusion. "How is that possible?" Looking at the screen sure enough the red icon had turned green. "Can you confirm that Captain!"

"Yes sir," Captain Bennett replied. "It's definitely the Galactica's ID codes."

"If the Galactica was destroyed in her encounter with the Cylon Colony then Admiral Adama might have moved his flag over to the Basestar," Lisa spoke her eyes watching the Dradis screen curiously. "I don't believe that Basestar is a danger."

"Admiral I am picking up a transmission from the Cylon Basestar," Captain Billings announced. "They say they are friendly and wish peaceful contact. As a sign of their trust worthiness, they are not launching any raiders or arming their weapon systems. It sounds like a computer generated voice sir."

"Captain Simms can you confirm their weapon's status?" Admiral Reed demanded looking over at Angela. This was getting more confusing with each passing moment.

"Yes sir," she replied gazing at her sensor screens. "Their weapon systems are not active."

Admiral Reed took a deep breath. "Very well, Commander Stramm place us in orbit with them at a range of 100 kilometers. Go to condition two, but keep our secondary weapons focused on the Basestar. Land two of our squadrons, but I want two kept on CAP until we find out just what the frak is going on here. Captain Billings contact the Hyperion and order them and the support ships to maintain their current distance."

"A Cylon Basestar with a Colonial ID," Commander Stramm muttered shaking his head. "Now I've seen everything."

"Admiral might I suggest that you allow me to attempt to speak with the Basestar and find out just what is going on," Lisa suggested.

"The Basestar is here, but where are the rest of the Colonial ships?" Commander Stramm asked glancing over at Captain Simms at her sensor console.

"I am not showing any Colonial ships down on the planet Admiral," Angela reported watching the data coming across her screens from her sensors. "I am showing some building activity on the surface, which I believe is Cylon related from the energy readings, but nothing Colonial."

Admiral Reed paused a moment considering his options. If this was the rebel Cylon Basestar that had been with the Galactica, then they probably knew where the Colonial ships were. It was becoming obvious that the human survivors that had been escorted by the Galactica were not on Earth.

"Very well Lisa," Admiral Reed finally said. "Speak with them and try to find out what's going on. Don't give them any information on the Colonies or what has happened back home. Not until we know for sure just who or what we are dealing with."

Nodding, Lisa walked over to the communications console where Captain Billings handed her a mini com. A few moments later and Lisa was talking to the Basestar.

…

Two hours later, they were all in Admiral Reed's office discussing what they had learned from the crew of the Cylon Basestar. Lisa had been shocked to learn that not a single human form Cylon was on the ship. Not only that, but all the inhibitor chips that allowed the human form Cylons to control the Centurions had been removed.

"This is fraking unbelievable," Commander Stramm spoke shaking his head still finding it hard to believe what Lisa had been telling them. "These Centurions are building their own world down on Earth without the supervision of anyone."

"That's correct," Lisa replied. She had been surprised to hear this also.

Before today, she had spoken to very few Centurions that were not controlled by the inhibitor chip. John had demanded the chip to be put into every Centurion produced as a safety precaution. John had wanted to ensure they could never turn against their creators as the original Cylons had against the Colonials. She had been surprised at how intelligent they had sounded. They had some very clear goals in mind and had been remarkably open with what they intended on doing.

"Caprica Six allowed the Centurions to take the Basestar and leave New Earth," Lisa continued. "After their attack on the Cylon Colony, she felt they owed the Centurions the chance to build a life of their own."

"A world of intelligent machines," Commander Stramm spoke with worry in his eyes. "What is there to ensure they won't take the same route that John and the other Ones chose for your people?"

"Fate and freedom of choice," Lisa replied forcing a smile. "They have accepted that they are doomed to remain a machine life form since the Colony has been destroyed. There is no way for them to create organic Cylon bodies. They wish to build their own world and explore the galaxy. Who knows, perhaps someday in our own time we will meet them again."

"We need to jump to New Earth," Admiral Reed spoke wondering just what type of world the Cylon Centurions would build. "The Centurions report that Admiral Adama destroyed all of his ships by having them fly into the system's sun."

"A world with very limited technology," Commander Stramm continued wondering if he could have done the same.

"They blamed technology for all the problems in the Colonies and for the Fall," Lisa said recalling what the Centurions had told her. "They wanted to start over on a new world with a new beginning. Even the surviving human form Cylons agreed."

"They have lived on that world for two years without any of their technology," Admiral Reed commented gazing at Lisa.

"They have no idea that the Colonies survived," Commander Stramm voiced. "How will they take that, I mean, they fled believing that everything had been destroyed."

"But they lured John and a major portion of the Cylon fleet after them," Admiral Reed pointed out recalling the war. "If not for that, we might not have won. The Cylon Colony by itself might have made the difference between us winning and loosing."

"How did the Centurions take it when you told them what had happened back on the Colonies and the Cylon home world?" Admiral Reed asked curiously. They had discussed this before agreeing to tell the Centurions.

"Surprisingly well," Lisa replied recalling that conversation. "They didn't seem surprised."

"We will stay here for 24 hours," Admiral Reed decided. "Lisa, I want you to take a raptor over to the Cylon ship and ensure that everything is as represented over there. See if they will allow you to go down to the surface and inspect what they are building."

"I don't think that will be a problem Admiral," Lisa replied recalling how pleased the Centurions had been to be able to talk to her. "They seem very proud of what they are doing."

"Commander Stramm take the fleet to condition three, and have all ships ready to jump in 24 hours," Admiral Reed ordered wanting to go on to New Earth. "If our calculations are correct it will take us four days to reach New Earth."

"I just wonder what will be awaiting us there," Lisa said looking over at the Admiral.

…

In bright flashes of blue white light, the seventeen ships of Admiral Reed's fleet jumped into the Solar System. From the three Battlestars, CAP vipers launched and the fleet settled in for their short journey to the third planet.

"Sensors indicate eight perhaps nine planets in the system," Captain Simms reported. "There are two very large gas giants, and a large asteroid field between the fourth and fifth planets."

"And New Earth?" Admiral Reed asked looking at the view screen. They had jumped in ten million kilometers from the planet, so they would have plenty of time to complete their scans of the system before going into orbit.

"It's nearly in the center of this sun's liquid water zone," Captain Simms replied as she looked over the data on her screen. "It's remarkably like Caprica."

The blue green world grew as the view screen magnified the picture. Soon the entire view screen was filled with the globe of New Earth.

"No wonder they elected to settle here," Commander Stramm spoke gazing at the peaceful planet on the screen.

"It's beautiful," Lisa spoke quietly her blue eyes glued to the screen.

In the entire CIC, all talking had stopped. Everyone stared in amazement at the planet.

"Put us in orbit Commander," Admiral Reed spoke into the quiet. "Let's see if we can find some survivors."

…

Down on the planet, Lee Adama was climbing slowly back into his raptor. He had been exploring a small mountainous area and taking plant and water samples. Sitting down in the pilot's chair, he gazed out the cracked cockpit window. He had to get these new samples back to Doctor Cottle at base camp.

When they had settled on the planet two years ago, they had abandoned nearly all their technology. They had kept one large shuttle at base camp to use as a makeshift hospital. They had also kept two raptors and several small Tylium storage tanks. For the last two years, Lee had been exploring the planet and checking on the different camps. Some of the camps were thriving, others were finding it difficult to adapt to their new world, and a few had vanished completely.

Lee let out a deep breath knowing that his days of flying were just about over. The Tylium was just about gone, and once it was then all the camps would be truly isolated. If they had a medical emergency, they would be on their own.

Looking over at the copilot's seat, he wasn't surprised to see Kara Thrace sitting there. He had been having this hallucination for months. He knew if he reached over to touch her, she would just vanish as she always did. Like she did on that day nearly two years ago, after his father and Laura had flown off.

"Hello Lee," Kara spoke looking into Lee Adama's deep blue eyes.

"Hello Kara," Lee replied not surprised his hallucination had spoken to him.

Every since the accident where he had cracked the forward cockpit window on the raptor knocking himself out in the process, the hallucinations had been steadily getting worse. He hadn't mentioned any of this to Doctor Cottle knowing that the doctor would ground him if he found out.

With a smile, Kara reached out and touched Lee's arm. Lee froze for a moment. He could swear that he could actually feel her hand on his arm. He hesitantly placed his left hand on hers and felt the warm, solid flesh of her hand.

"Kara?" Lee asked confused and wondering if he had died and didn't' know it.

"Yes Lee, I'm back," she replied looking reassuringly into his eyes. "I'm really here."

"I don't understand," Lee stammered still in shock scarcely believing that it was Kara.

Kara gazed up briefly into the sky as if she could see something that Lee couldn't. "Something wonderful is about to happen Lee, things are about to change."

"I don't understand," Lee replied looking up, but not seeing what Kara was looking at.

"You will Lee," she said smiling. "You will."

_Author's note: As usual, go to my profile and click on my website for additional Battlestar Galactica information about future stories._


	8. Chapter 8

Lee looked at Kara with a blank look on his face. "Where have you been, it's been over two years since you vanished! I mean Starbuck; you just vanished into thin air. You were nowhere to be found!"

"I know Lee, and I'm sorry," Starbuck replied reaching over and taking Lee's hand her eyes meeting his. "I don't remember a lot about where I've been. I do know that Laura, Dee, Anders, and many others from the Galactica and the fleet were there."

"Did you die?" Lee asked his eyes growing wide at the names Starbuck had just mentioned. For two years, he had flown across this planet exploring. In the back of his mind, he had always wondered what had happened to Starbuck. How could she just leave him as she did?

"No, I don't think so," she replied with a far away look in her deep blue eyes. "But we need to go Lee. We have a final mission to complete."

"Where to," Lee asked feeling confused. What was Starbuck talking about? "What do you mean final mission, is that why you came back?"

"We have to go up there Lee," Starbuck replied pointing upwards. "We need to fly your raptor up into orbit."

Lee shook his head in denial. "We can't. The front cockpit window is cracked, and there's not enough fuel left to get into orbit. I have just enough fuel to fly back to base camp, and that's it."

"Not a problem," Starbuck replied with that reckless smile that occasionally adorned her face. "I think I can still take care of that."

Starbuck closed her eyes and concentrated, and a bright white glow surrounded the raptor. She focused and tapped some inner power that she could just barely sense. It almost seemed as if someone were guiding her. It was as if some higher force had sensed her need and was helping her to manifest it into reality. Starbuck wondered briefly if angels did exist and if they were helping her even now.

Lee closed his eyes from the sudden brightness that encompassed the cockpit and the raptor. When he opened them, the brilliant glow was gone. But more amazingly, the crack in the cockpit window had been repaired, glancing down at the fuel gauge he was shocked to see that it now showed a full load of fuel. Looking around the inside of the raptor it looked as if it had just come off the production line. Everything looked new and unblemished. "How," he stammered looking over at Starbuck.

"One more thing," Starbuck spoke quietly gazing back at Lee. She reached out and gently touched his chest.

Lee felt a tingling sensation and looking down was stunned to see that he was now wearing his major's uniform from the time he had been in command of the Pegasus.

"How did you do all of this?" Lee asked staring at Starbuck in amazement. He wondered what else she could do. It reminded him so much of the time she had reappeared in the nebula. Her viper then had looked like it was brand new. Lee wondered if whatever had recreated her viper had just done the same thing to his raptor.

Starbuck gazed back at Lee and the raptor with a look of surprise and confusion on her face. "I don't know," she stammered. "I just did it, the memory of how is fading from my mind. I don't think I can ever do anything like this again."

Lee reached forwards and started the raptor's engines, which fired up smoothly. The engines sounded better than they had in months. "You said that we need to go up into orbit," Lee commented trying to sound calm. "Once we do are you going to vanish again?"

"No Lee, this time I get to stay. This was the last thing I had to do," Starbuck replied. "Don't ask me how I know; I just know that once this mission is over I don't have to leave."

Lee took the control stick in his hand and fired the raptor's thrusters lifting it up gently above the ground. He then fed power to the main engine and the raptor began rapidly to gain altitude as the ground fell away beneath them.

"What's happened, has the Cylon Basestar returned?" Lee asked wondering just why they had to go up into orbit. If it was the Basestar, why had they come back?

"No," Starbuck replied as a faint memory tugged at the back of her mind. "This is something different. You will see when we get into orbit."

The raptor continued to climb until it finally left the Earth's atmosphere and entered a stable orbit. The stars glowed steadily in the cockpit window and the Earth's single large satellite was just becoming visible around the curve of the planet.

"Now what?" Lee asked glancing over at Starbuck who was staring at what appeared to be a group of bright stars ahead of them.

"Turn the Dradis on," Starbuck spoke glancing over at Lee.

"The Dradis," Lee said in surprise. Reaching forwards, he turned the Dradis on and gasped as a group of seventeen green dots appeared. "It's a fleet! A Colonial fleet. They must be other survivors."

Lee increased power to the engine and headed the raptor toward the Dradis contacts watching is surprise as they grew in size in the cockpit window. "Holy frak, those are Battlestars! Where did they come from? I didn't think any others survived."

"I don't know Lee," Starbuck replied gazing at the rapidly growing Colonial ships. "I just know we're supposed to go and meet them."

Lee could see what looked like three large Colonial Battlestars growing in size as he flew closer. "How can this be?" It was at that moment that two vipers suddenly appeared and took up escort positions on each side of the raptor. Lee looked at the vipers noting that they were of a slightly different design than the mark sevens he was familiar with. He could see one of the pilots waving at him.

A voice suddenly came over the raptor's secure communication channel, which was reserved for warships only. "This is Admiral Reed aboard the Battlestar Rycon to the approaching Colonial raptor, please identify yourself."

Aboard the Rycon, Admiral Reed watched the Dradis screen as the raptor continued to close with the fleet. They had been surprised when the raptor had made a sudden appearance flying up from the planet below. From what the Cylon Centurions aboard the Basestar had said, they hadn't expected to encounter any modern technology on the planet.

"At least we know someone is still alive down there," Commander Stramm commented watching as two of the CAP vipers took up escorting positions on each side of the approaching raptor.

"This may make things easier," Lisa stated glancing over at the Admiral. "They should be able to tell us about other survivors and just what has been going on down below. From what the Cylon Centurions said there should be close to forty thousand survivors down on that planet. Some of them human form Cylons."

A voice suddenly sounded over the com link. "This is Major Lee Adama to the Battlestar Rycon, where the frak did you come from? We thought everyone else on the Colonies were dead!"

"Not quite Major Adama," Admiral Reed replied surprised at the name of the pilot of the raptor. "You said your name was Lee Adama, are you Admiral Adama's son?"

"Yes sir," Lee replied watching in amazement as he now saw three unblemished Jupiter Class Battlestars out the cockpit window. As he looked at the Dradis, he identified Colony ships, supply ships, Tylium tankers, and a number of other ships he couldn't recognize. Something just didn't seem right here. "Permission to come aboard the Rycon?" Lee requested. He knew that only by boarding the Rycon could he get the answers as to where these ships had come from.

"Permission granted Major Adama," Admiral Reed replied. "Land in the starboard landing bay. I will have some people waiting to meet you."

"Commander Stramm go and meet Major Adama and bring him to briefing room two," Admiral Reed ordered looking at the main view screen, which now showed the approaching raptor. It appeared to be in amazingly good condition for being down on the planet for two years. "I will gather some people and be waiting for you. I believe our young Major is in for a rather large surprise."

As they entered the landing bay, Lee was taken aback at feeling some slight resistance as they entered. He could also see that the crew inside the bay were not wearing spacesuits.

"A force field," Lee said astounded "We haven't used an atmospheric force field since the first Cylon war. Too many people were killed when they failed."

Lee maneuvered the raptor into the landing bay making a smooth landing. A small utility vehicle pulled up and attached a tow cable to the raptor pulling it over on top of one of the elevators. Lee waited expectantly as the elevator lowered the raptor to the next level. Glancing out the cockpit window, he noticed a number of people standing around watching. He was very interested in meeting this Admiral Reed. The name wasn't familiar to him, but there had been a lot of Admirals in the fleet.

"What now Starbuck?" Lee asked noticing that Starbuck was now dressed in a captain's uniform. He didn't even bother to ask where it had come from.

"I don't know Lee," she replied in a quiet voice. "All my memories from that other place have almost completely faded away. They just seem like a distant dream. I don't think I am supposed to remember what happened there. Also, all my abilities are gone. I am just a normal human like you now."

For a moment, Lee was silent as he thought about what Starbuck had just said. "That's good I guess," Lee replied finally. "But for some reason I don't think you will ever just be normal. After all, you're still Starbuck."

Starbuck smiled back at Lee. She felt very relaxed now that she was back. "Let's go, we need to find out what has happened and where all these ships came from."

Commander Stramm watched as the door to the raptor opened and two Colonial officers stepped out. One was a major, and the other was a captain. Both stopped before him and saluted.

"Major Adama and Captain Thrace reporting sir," Lee said standing straight before the commander.

"At ease," Commander Stramm replied returning the salute. "If you two will follow me, we will meet with Admiral Reed. He can explain to you what is going on. I believe both of you will be pleasantly surprised."

Lee and Starbuck were both silent as they followed the commander. As they glanced around, they noticed that everything aboard the Battlestar looked new and fresh. Lee had a feeling that this Battlestar couldn't be very old. It looked as if it had been recently constructed.

"I don't recall a Jupiter Class Battlestar with the name Rycon in the fleet during the war," Lee commented glancing at the commander.

"There wasn't one," Commander Stramm replied. "It was built after the Fall."

"Built after the Fall," Lee stammered his eyes growing wide. "That's impossible; the Cylons destroyed all the shipyards!"

"There are some things you don't know Major Adama," Commander Stramm replied suppressing a smile. "Admiral Reed will explain everything."

A few minutes later, the three entered a briefing room. Lee noticed a number of people waiting. He was stunned to see a blond Cylon, a number six model sitting at the large conference table. What the frak was going on?

Admiral Reed stood and watched as the two Colonial officers came to a stop before him and saluted. Both had very confused looks upon their faces, and he couldn't blame them. They had thought the Colonies were destroyed, and now they were about to learn just the opposite.

Lee gazed at the Admiral in front of him. None of this made any sense. If Starbuck wasn't here with him, he would believe all of this was a hallucination. On second thought, maybe it was.

"Set down Major Adama, Captain Thrace," Admiral Reed spoke gesturing towards a couple of comfortable chairs across the table from him. "I have a story to tell you. It is quite remarkable, and your fleet played a very important role."

"The Colonies weren't totally destroyed were they," Starbuck said with dawning realization. "That's where you're from. You're from the Twelve Colonies!"

"That's impossible," Lee broke in frowning at Starbuck. "They were destroyed, we heard the reports. The fleet was also destroyed. No other warships survived!"

Admiral Reed looked around the room and then back to Major Adama. "That's not quite true Major Adama. I need to tell you about a plan. A plan created by Admiral Corman, Admiral Nagala, and Admiral Clements. It was called Case Omega One for the survival of the Colonies."

For two hours, Lee and Starbuck listened spell bound as Admiral Reed spoke of the establishment of Shadow Base, the sitting up of the Demeter Colony by Admiral Stone. They listened in amazement about Admiral Stone encountering the Kobolans and the Kobolan world of Terra. The battle of Shadow Base and the eventual destruction of a major portion of the Cylon fleet over the Ovion home world. Then Admiral Reed began going into more detail about Admiral Clements and Case Omega One. He told of how Admiral Clements had gathered as many civilian ships and Colonial warships as possible and fled to the Andorian nebula where he had built up his forces in secret. How they had eventually attacked the Cylons, freeing the Twelve Colonies and the final battle against the Cylons over the Cylon home world.

"This is all so unbelievable," Lee said finally looking at Admiral Reed. "How many survivors did you say there were on the Colonies?"

Admiral Reed hesitated for a moment before replying. "Nearly 50 million as of the latest census. That includes the colonists on Demeter, as well as those still in the Andorian nebula. Most of the survivors in the Colonies are on Caprica, Gemenon, and Aquaria."

"Fifty million people," Lee spoke slowly his eyes growing wide then angry. "So we did all that running for nothing. We spent years leading the Cylons away from the Colonies. All for nothing!"

"No major," Admiral Reed spoke shaking his head in denial. "Because you led a major portion of the Cylon fleet away from the Colonies, including the Cylon Hub and the Cylon Colony, we were able to win the war."

Lee was silent for several long moments. "Now what?"

"We have come to take you home, back to the Colonies," Admiral Reed said simply.

"The Colonies," Starbuck echoed staring at Lee. It seemed like so long ago when they had fled the Twelve Colonies with the Cylons in pursuit. She wondered if her apartment was still intact in Caprica City.

"There is one more thing you need to know major," Admiral Reed began glancing at Denise Anthon. "There is something about the Ionian nebula that you need to be made aware of. Science Specialist Anthon is from Terra. Her father is their leading scientist, and he made an astonishing discovery about the nebula."

"Why do I feel we're not going to like this," Starbuck spoke gazing at the young woman.

Denise looked back at Starbuck before replying. "The Ionian nebula has a tear in space located at its center. I will explain how this happened shortly. But the main thing you need to know is that the Galactica and the civilian fleet she was escorting went through this hole, as well as the pursuing Cylon fleet."

"What do you mean a hole in space?" Lee asked not liking where this was going. "Our ships lost power in the nebula, but we didn't detect anything out of the ordinary."

"The tear is caused by massive gravity waves, both your fleet and the Cylon fleet were sent 150,000 years into the past," Denise said watching the two Colonial officers for their reaction.

It was so silent in the room you could hear a pin drop. "Are you telling me that right now, at this very minute we are 150,000 years in the past?" Lee said loudly wondering just what these people were trying to pull.

"Yes," Denise replied calmly. "We traced your fleet to the nebula and discovered the tear in space time. We then passed through the tear to rescue you."

"How did all this happen?" Starbuck asked feeling like she was getting a massive headache from all the revelations.

Denise looked over at Admiral Reed who nodded. She then launched into a brief explanation of what her father had discovered and how they had come to be at New Earth.

Two hours later, Lee and Starbuck were standing in the CIC of the Rycon with Admiral Reed.

"It's hard to believe all we have been told," Lee commented looking at the main view screen, which showed one of the new Firestar Class Repulse Battle Cruisers. The ship looked deadly and ready to strike if need be. They sure could have used a ship like that when they were fleeing from the Cylons.

"We all felt that way when we learned of the plan to retake the Colonies," Admiral Reed spoke understanding the major's feelings. "Many of us wondered if it could be done. We were extremely lucky the way everything turned out."

"Things have changed," Lisa added speaking to the major. From what the two Colonial officers had told her there were several hundred human form Cylons down on the planet. She was anxious to contact them and see how many could be persuaded to return home. "The Cylons and the Colonies are now at peace and will stay that way."

"So what's next?" Starbuck asked looking over at Lee and the Admiral.

"We contact your people and see if they want to go home," Admiral Reed answered with a slight smile.

"What if they don't?" Lee asked. He knew that some liked the new life they had.

"Then they can stay," Admiral Reed replied wondering how many might chose that option. He knew this would be the difficult part. "You have furnished us a map of all the Colonial settlements on New Earth. We will send raptors down and talk to your people."

"Some of the settlements are empty," Lee replied sadly. He knew that disease and the weather had wiped out a number of the settlements.

"What I need from you major is to take me to your father," Admiral Reed added looking Lee steadily in the eyes. "I need to speak with him."

Lee was silent for a moment. In his early explorations, he had located his father's cabin amongst some small mountains. He had stopped and visited with his father spending some time with him at Laura's cairn. His father hadn't been too talkative, but Lee had stayed for several days anyway. Later he had told Tigh and Ellen where his father was, and he knew that they had gone to visit him several times.

"I can take you there," Lee replied finally. "But my father has chosen to live alone away from the settlements. I don't know how he will take your arrival."

"I think you may be in for a surprise," Admiral Reed replied with a mysterious smile.

A few minutes later, Lee was once more in his raptor with Admiral Reed, Starbuck, and two Colonial marines. They exited the landing bay and Lee turned the raptor back towards Earth and his father.

Lee landed the raptor in a small clearing a short distance from his father's cabin. He could see smoke coming from the brick chimney, so he knew his father was there.

"We're here," Lee commented gazing at the door to the cabin seeing it open and his father step out onto the porch.

Lee, Starbuck, and Admiral Clements exited the raptor leaving the two marines standing guard at the base of the ramp. All three slowly walked up to the cabin. Adama descended the two steps from his porch meeting them halfway. He wasn't wearing his Admiral's uniform, just regular working clothes.

Glancing at Starbuck, Admiral Adama asked. "What do you hear Starbuck?"

"Nothing but the rain sir," Kara replied with a smile on her face. "Nothing but the rain."

Adama switched his gaze to Admiral Reed with a slightly surprised look on his face. "Who are you?"

"Admiral Reed sir," Reed replied saluting Admiral Adama. "I am from the Colonies, and I have a message for you from Admiral Clements." Admiral Reed reached into a pocket of his uniform and handed Adama the letter he had been instructed to bring.

"Admiral Clements," Adama repeated his eyes widening slightly. Adama took a pair of old reading glasses out of a pocket and put them on. He opened the letter and began reading. After reading the letter, he placed it carefully in a pocket and gazed speculatively at Admiral Reed.

"I didn't read the letter sir," Admiral Reed commented. He had no idea what was in it.

Admiral Adama was silent for a moment then spoke. "So Case Omega One actually worked. Admiral Clements was able to retake the Colonies."

"You knew," Admiral Reed spoke shocked. "How?"

Lee and Starbuck both looked at Adama in confusion. How could he know about this? It was impossible.

"It's real simple Admiral," Adama spoke softly looking at the three of them. "I was part of it. This refugee fleet was part of it. This was all part of Admiral Corman, Admiral Nagala, and Admiral Clement's plan."

"Dad, I don't understand," Lee interrupted feeling more confused than ever. "What do you mean we were part of it?"

"We couldn't have been," Starbuck added glancing at Adama hoping all the stress from their flight from the Cylons and Laura's death wasn't getting to him.

Adama let out a long breath. "Come inside the cabin and we will talk. There are some things I have always kept secret about the Galactica's final orders. Orders that I told no one about. The Galactica was always a part of Case Omega One."

The three followed Adama into the cabin wondering just what he was about to tell them. Lee and Starbuck glanced at each other, both wondering just what was going on. Had this entire trip to Earth just been a ruse that the Galactica had participated in? The story they were about to be told was going to be very interesting.

_Author's note: I am sorry to say that the next chapter will be the exciting conclusion to this story. There are still several intriguing twists that will occur. Some of you will be surprised, and others will feel that everything now makes sense. Some questions will be answered; others will have to wait until the final story in this series comes out in April. **Return to Earth** will finally answer what really happened in the Colonies and why it will not happen again!_


	9. Chapter 9

The three followed Admiral Adama into the small, rustic cabin. In the distance, they could see a small blue lake through the trees. Small white clouds drifted overhead. It was quiet and peaceful. The only sound was that of an occasional bird calling for its mate. A light wind blew through the trees barely rustling the leaves.

All three were looking at each other and wondering just what the Admiral had meant when he had said he was familiar with Case Omega One. Very few people in the entire fleet had known about that ultra secret plan to preserve the Colonies in case of a massive Cylon attack. How could Adama possibly know about it? None of this made any sense. There was a mystery here that was waiting to be explained.

Entering the cabin, Lee looked around seeing that his father had handcrafted several functional wood chairs and a small table, which sat close to the burning fireplace. You could barely smell the smoke from numerous past fires and the one currently burning. Along one wall, a longer piece of furniture similar to a couch was covered with animal hide and looked quite comfortable. Lee knew that his father had always been very gifted in being able to use his hands at making things. A small table next to the couch held several books and a picture of Laura.

The fireplace was putting forth a nice warming heat from the burning logs within. It made a slight crackling noise and the fireplace was well vented as all the smoke was going up the chimney and not into the cabin. A large window, which looked out over the porch let abundant light into the small room. Another open doorway beckoned and glancing in Lee saw a small, comfortable bed with several large quilts for warmth. His Dad had done a remarkable job on the cabin. It was a shame that Laura hadn't survived to enjoy it.

"You did a good job on the cabin Admiral," commented Kara looking around and knowing that the Admiral had put a lot of hard work into the small cabin. "Laura would have loved it."

"I know she would have," Adama replied with a nod gesturing for everyone to sit down. "We always talked about living in a cabin over looking a lake when all this was over. We just never knew it would only be one of us."

"I'm sorry to hear about President Roslyn," Admiral Reed replied. "From what I have heard she was an amazing woman."

"That she was," Adama replied with sadness in his eyes. "She always believed in Earth. If not for her perseverance, we never would have made it."

"Dad, you said you knew about the plan to save the Colonies," Lee spoke sitting down on the couch next to Starbuck and looking confused. "How can that be? You never said anything about that to the rest of us. From what Admiral Reed has told us, very few people knew about it. Only those that were directly involved."

Adama looked around the room as he sat down at the table. Admiral Reed sat down in the other sturdy wood chair across from him. Adama took off his glasses and laid them down taking a deep breath. This had all occurred so long ago. It was difficult to remember everything, but he did remember very clearly the meeting with Admiral Nagala. He closed his eyes briefly, recalling the past, and then opened them looking around the room. "It all started when Admiral Nagala called me in for a meeting a few months after the Valkyrie incident."

Commander Adama waited nervously in a small conference room on the Battlestar Atlantia. The Battlestar was in orbit around Picon, and Adama had been summoned for a meeting with Admiral Nagala. Since he had lost Bull Dog in the stealth viper across the armistice line, he had been involved in a number of meetings and debriefings. There was no doubt in Adama's mind that the failure of the mission was being blamed on him. The administration needed a scapegoat, and it looked as if he was it.

Adama knew that the civilian government was very unhappy with the incident and the possibility of aggravating the Cylons. They were demanding that he be removed from command and possibly even from the fleet. Only the intervention of Admiral Nagala and Admiral Corman had prevented him from being busted down to a civilian. Sometimes Adama wondered if that might not be best.

The fleet was in the process of being downsized in order to free up cubits to be spent on more civilian projects. New temples were being built on Gemenon, more underwater cities were planned on Aquaria, and massive urban projects were planned on Caprica. The fleet just wasn't what it used to be. Too many years had passed since the Cylon war and the younger generations just didn't understand the threat. They hadn't lived through the nightmare. They hadn't witnessed innocent families gunned down in cold blood. Million of helpless civilians had died in the war, and if not for the Colonial fleet, the Cylons would have won. What frightened Adama was the fact that the Cylons were still out there and might some day return.

The door opened, and Admiral Nagala walked in. Adama was surprised to see Admiral Corman with him also. Adama stood up and saluted his eyes forward. Maybe they were going to bust him down to civilian status after all.

"At ease Bill," Admiral Nagala said as the two Admirals sat down across from him. "Have a seat; this is going to take awhile."

Admiral Corman gazed across the table with a heavy frown. "That damn incident with Bull Dog has really riled the civilian government. Adar's probably going to win the next election and cut the fleet even more. If this keeps up all we're going to have are a few Gunstars to defend the Colonies with."

The civilian government is demanding more fleet reductions every day," Admiral Nagala grumbled looking across at Adama. "This new generation just doesn't recognize the threat the Cylons represent."

Adama stayed quiet not sure where all this was going. He had known both of the two senior Admirals of the fleet for a long time, since the original Cylon war.

"At least they've agreed to construct a few more Mercury class Battlestars," remarked Nagala glancing over at Admiral Corman. "The Aurora should be completed shortly, and she will make one frak of a difference in fleet command. She will have twice the firepower of a Mercury and will be capable of commanding the entire fleet from her CIC."

Adama knew that the Aurora was a Nova class. She would be the most powerful ship in the fleet. The most powerful warship the fleet had ever built. He knew that the civilian government had been protesting loudly about her cost.

"Her trials are scheduled in four more months," Admiral Corman replied. "I assume you will be transferring your flag over to the Aurora as soon as the trials are complete?

"That's the plan," Admiral Nagala replied. "The Atlantia will remain as the backup command ship for the fleet. Once the initial shakedown cruise is completed I will begin transferring my command staff over to the Aurora."

"Which brings us to why we are all three here," Admiral Corman stated looking across the conference table at Commander Adama. "Bill we have a new mission for you."

"A new mission," Adama commented with surprise raising his eyebrows. "I don't have a ship at the moment. The Valkyrie has been removed from my command."

Admiral Nagala was silent for a moment, he wasn't sure how Adama would respond to what he was about to be told. "Bill, we strongly suspect that the Cylons are building up their strength to attack the Colonies, their quick response to Bull Dog only helped to confirm our suspicions."

"You knew he would be detected!" Adama spoke his voice rising accusingly.

"Yes," Admiral Corman replied in a calm voice. "We knew that there was a very high probability that the insertion of the stealth viper across the armistice line would be detected. We had to know if the Cylons had that capability and how quick their response time would be. All of our fears were realized. Only a well prepared Cylon military could have responded as they did."

"Bill, you have to understand," Admiral Nagala continued. "We had to know, there are some plans we are in the process of making that depended on this information."

"What plans" asked Adama not liking the idea that his career had been sacrificed to prove a point. He hated the thought that the two fleet admirals were playing politics with his career.

"What we are about to tell you is top secret, only a few people in the fleet know," Admiral Corman replied. He leaned back and let out a long deep breath. "Let me tell you about a plan, the plan is called Case Omega One for the survival of the Colonies."

An hour later, Adama looked across the conference table at the two Admirals. He was still trying to take in all that he had been told. It sounded so fantastic. "I understand that you believe the Cylons are preparing to launch a major attack against the Colonies, but why tell me?"

Admiral Nagala paused for a moment before replying. "In order to give Admiral Clements or either of us time to launch Case Omega and retake the Colonies, we need to split the Cylon fleet. In case of a major attack and it seems as if the Colonies are going to fall, your job will be to gather up as many civilian ships as possible and flee the Colonies luring as many Cylon Capital ships as possible after you. Your mission will be to lure them as far away from the Colonies as possible."

"With what ship will I have to do this with?" asked Adama tying to absorb everything he had been told. He doubted they were going to give him the Valkyrie back.

"The Galactica," replied Nagala recalling the old ship. He had actually served a tour on her during his younger days. "She is old, but still has a few more years of service left in her. If the Cylons attack, she should not be a high priority target. Once the attack commences, gather the civilians and get the frak out of the Colonies. If the Cylons are trying to conquer or wipe out the Colonies, they won't want anyone escaping. They will come after you."

"How long should I lead them away from the Colonies?" asked Adama wondering how such a mission would end. It sounded more like a suicide mission to him.

Nagala and Corman were silent. "As long as it takes Bill," Nagala finally replied, his eyes gazing deeply into Adama's. "As long as they are following you, keep on putting distance between them and the Colonies. Lure them as far away as possible."

"But how will I get the civilians to follow?" asked Adama wondering how he could pull this off. "They won't like being used as bait for the Cylons."

"Tell them you're going to Earth," Corman replied in a serious tone. "Tell them you will take them to the Thirteenth Colony. It will give them hope and a goal. If the Colonies are in the Cylon's hands, then the civilians will follow you in the search for Earth."

"And that's what I did," Adama spoke looking over at Lee and Kara. "I left the Colonies, but I never did enough to completely lose the Cylons. I knew they would probably have spies in the fleet. Everywhere we went, I waited until the Cylons found us. Kobol, the Algae Planet, New Caprica, the Ionian nebula, it was all a game of cat and mouse. When the Cylons would lose us, I would slow the fleet down or find some reason to delay. Sometimes it would be for mining minerals or Tylium, searching planets for food or water, I always found a reason to delay."

"We lost people," said Lee accusingly, his eyes a taking on a cold tint. "People died in the fleet, they died on New Caprica, and now you tell us this was all part of a plan!"

"It was a mission Lee," Adama replied with a faraway look in his eyes. "We lost a lot of good people, but in the back of my mind I always hoped that Case Omega would succeed. Baltar almost screwed it up when he forced us to settle on New Caprica, but I suspected the Cylons would detect the nuclear blast when Cloud Nine was destroyed and eventually find us."

"You did better than Admiral Corman or Admiral Nagala could have ever hoped," Admiral Reed commented still amazed that the Galactica had survived so long with the Cylons in pursuit. "Somehow, the Final Five Cylons ended up in your fleet. John Cavil knew that somehow and came after you and them with a major portion of the Cylon fleet. From what Daniel has told us, he had a vendetta against the Final Five. He took nearly a fourth of their surviving warships, as well as the Resurrection Hub and the Cylon Colony to pursue you and the Final Five. It made victory in the Colonies possible."

"I've often wondered how the Final Five ended up in the fleet," Starbuck commented with a strange look on her face. "It seems like the odds of that happening would be astronomical!"

"If you were to ask Baltar or Caprica Six they would tell you a higher power was involved," Adama replied with a slight smile. "Perhaps there was, I mean how else can you explain us being able to destroy the Cylon Hub and heavily damage the Cylon Colony. We only had one old worn out Battlestar. It should never have happened."

"We did have Kara disappear and then strangely reappear, twice," commented Lee glancing at Kara. "Sometimes I have wondered if a higher power was indeed involved. How else can you explain everything that happened to us?"

"Then we found Earth, both Earths," continued Kara gazing at Lee.

"Look at how we found New Earth," spoke Lee recalling the battle at the Cylon Colony and how Kara had programmed the last jump, which brought them here. "In some ways it almost seems as if everything was supposed to happen as it did, as if some higher power was controlling everything."

"Perhaps," Adama said looking around at the three. "But now it's over. I guess the big question now is what do we do?"

"I have two big super colony ships in orbit as well as Tylium tankers and several supply ships," Admiral Reed commented. He also wondered where all this would lead. After listening to Admiral Adama, it seemed as if too many coincidences had occurred. It made him feel uneasy. He had never been one to believe in the Gods of Kobol.

"Our people can return home," said Lee wondering what Caprica would be like now. It seemed hard to believe that they could return to Caprica and live a near normal life.

"Some of our people may not want to return," spoke Adama wondering if he actually wanted to return to the Colonies. Laura was buried here. Could he actually leave her? There were some nights here in the cabin that he felt like she was here with him. Sometimes, out of the corner of his eyes, he thought he could see her sitting on the couch watching him. But when he would turn to look, she wouldn't be there.

"Major Adama and I discussed that," Admiral Reed said looking over at Lee. "What I propose to do is send raptors down to each of the settlements and talk to the people. We will tell them the Colonies are free and that they can return to them without anymore fear of the Cylons. We will leave it up to them as to what they want to do. If they want to return home, we will take them up to the colony ships. If they want to stay, we can build them some new settlements where they will stand a better chance of survival. Major Adama has already told me that several of the settlements are gone."

…

For the next week, raptors and shuttles from the orbiting fleet searched out the Colonial settlements talking to the survivors. They explained what had happened at the Colonies and that they were now able to go home if they wanted. As Lee had already found, some settlements had been completely abandoned with no sign of what had happened to the colonists. At others, the populations had been considerably reduced by disease and a lack of food. At the end of the week, Admiral Adama was invited to come aboard the Rycon to meet with Admiral Reed.

Lee came down in a raptor and picked up his father. Adama was wearing his dress blue Admiral's uniform. He had kept it even though he never thought he would be wearing it again. A little while later, they were approaching the Rycon. Adama gazed out the cockpit window in silence at the Colonial ships.

"I never expected to see a Battlestar again," spoke Lee interrupting the silence. His father had said very little since he had picked him up.

"When we left the Colonies, I never expected to see one either," confessed Adama looking over at Lee. "I expected us all to die as we led the Cylons across the Galaxy. The odds were stacked against us, and I never thought we would actually survive all of this. There were times I actually wondered if it might not be best just to let the Cylons destroy the fleet and let it all end."

"But we did survive, and we found Earth," Lee spoke. He now understood the stress his father had been under. He didn't know if he could have done the same if their places had been switched.

Lee landed the raptor and a few minutes later they both exited stepping off the ramp. Admiral Adama paused in surprise seeing nearly the entire complement of the Rycon standing at attention before him.

"Galactica arriving," a powerful voice rang out. The entire crew snapped to attention and saluted.

Adama felt overwhelmed with emotion. Then he stopped, snapped to attention, and saluted. "At ease," he ordered gazing at the orderly ranks of Colonial fleet personnel. Seeing the new uniforms, the young and old faces in the crew, it made him realize that the Colonies had indeed survived.

Commander Stramm stepped forwards and saluted the Admiral. "Commander Stramm sir. Welcome aboard the Battlestar Rycon."

"Thank you commander," Adama replied with a smile. "It looks like you have a fine crew here."

"I like to think so sir," replied Stramm nodding. "If you will follow me, I will take you to Admiral Reed."

They made their way through the Rycon and arrived in the conference room where Admiral Reed and a number of others were waiting.

"We have sent raptors and shuttles to all the known settlements," Admiral  
>Reed began. "We have located 28,000 survivors."<p>

"Only 28,000," Admiral Adama echoed surprised. "Are you sure about those numbers."

"Yes," replied Admiral Reed glancing down at a several papers in front of him. It was a detailed report on what had been found in the settlements. "A number of settlements are totally gone, it's possible that some of the surviving residents moved in with the primitives that are on the planet. We are still conducting searches in those areas. In numerous others there have been losses due to disease, food shortages, and harsh weather conditions."

Lee sat silently listening to the report. He wondered if they had made the right decision in giving up so much of their technology. It sounded like a lot of people hadn't survived. He knew from his own raptor flights that some of the settlements had experienced problems. Too many of the Colonials had been ill prepared to live out on their own, to grow their own crops, build appropriate shelters, or to hunt game. In hindsight, Lee knew they had made a mistake.

"I have spoken to several of the human form Cylons down on Earth," added Lisa addressing the group. "Several of them have indicated they would like to return to the Cylon home world, while others have requested to stay here on Earth. A few have married Colonials and are pregnant!"

"The same holds true with the Colonials down on the planet," Admiral Reed said studying a report. "Out of the 28,000 survivors we have found, almost 11,000 of them have indicated they would like to stay here, the rest want to return to the Colonies."

…

Science Specialist Denise Anthon and Captain Aaron Simms were down on New Earth searching for survivors. Captain Simms had landed their raptor in a small clearing next to an abandoned settlement. Two other raptors containing Colonial marines had already landed and were searching the surrounding area.

Denise was walking through the settlement stopping occasionally to look into some of the abandoned huts. A door hanging off of its hinges drew her attention, and she stepped forwards to glance inside. As with most of the small huts, it consisted of two rooms. There was one room for eating and the other room for sleeping and not much else. The huts were very primitive made of wood with grass and mud filling in the gaps in the walls.

"No sign of anyone," Captain Aaron Simms remarked, walking up to Denise. "We have two squads of marines combing the nearby woods and fields for any sign of survivors. It's as if everyone just vanished."

"Their life here would have been very difficult," commented Denise going inside the hut and examining the primitive furniture.

A small table and two very primitive wood chairs was all she could find in the main room. The bedroom had several grass mats laying on the floor with a few old worn out blankets for warmth. Several old shirts and a torn pair of jeans were thrown over in one corner.

"The entire settlement is like this," commented Aaron looking at Denise. "We have found a number of settlements like this around the planet. They are empty with no sign of the former inhabitants. From the number of people Admiral Adama has indicated were in some of these settlements, we have thousands of people missing."

"I think I know what might have happened," replied Denise turning to gaze at Aaron with a sad look in her eyes. "In all the empty settlements, most of the people's personal effects are missing. I believe they either found the living conditions to harsh, or were suffering from a lack of food. I think they just packed up and tried to move to a better area, but didn't make it."

"It's possible," Aaron replied with a slight nod of his head knowing that this was a mystery they might never solve. "We know that several settlements that still had survivors did indeed move. Perhaps in the empty settlements, the people waited too long. They didn't survive the attempt to move to a more hospitable location. If we knew which way they might have headed, it's possible we might be able to find their remains or even a few survivors."

"It's a big planet," Denise replied as the two walked back outside into the bright sunlight. "If the weather conditions were too harsh, if they were attacked by the primitives, or ran out of food any of those could account for what happened. They had maps indicating the location of other settlements. They might have set out intending to join up with the nearest settlement only to arrive and find them suffering from the same problems."

"It's possible," replied Captain Simms looking out towards the nearby woods where he knew the marines were involved in their searches. "In most areas where one settlement has failed, several others did to."

"This is a beautiful planet," remarked Denise breathing in the fresh invigorating air. It was so much better than the recirculated air on the ships.

"It's a shame that so many died once they got here. A world like this is very rare."

"A lot like Caprica, but with bigger oceans," spoke Aaron looking at Denise. The view from space of New Earth was breathtaking. "The marines should be finished with their search in another couple of hours, we can continue to check out the settlement, but I don't think we're going to find anything."

"You're probably right," Denise replied with a sigh. "I suspect most of these settlements failed the first year. That's nearly two years ago. I doubt if we will be able to find anything. These empty settlements might just have to remain a mystery."

Three hours later, the three raptors returned to the Battlestar Rycon. No survivors had been found or any hint as to what had happened to the Colonials who had made the settlement their home. Other missions reported the same result.

…

Two months later, Admiral Adama, Lee, and Kara were back down on New Earth. They were in a new, modern settlement that had been built on a large island off the southeast cost off a large landmass that looked very much like a boot. There was a small, inactive volcano on one end of the island, and the land was very fertile. The settlement had been built in a small valley that opened up next to a small bay that would make an ideal port for the sailing ships that were being planned. The long-range plans called for the sailing ships to be used for trade and to stay in contact with the other settlements.

"Admiral Reed's people have really accomplished a lot," commented Kara looking at the modern cabins and small buildings that were springing up everywhere in the new settlement.

She frowned seeing a number of the spider like work robots that were putting the final touches on what would eventually be a school. They made her feel a little uneasy, but she knew they were not a threat. The work robots were programmed for simple construction jobs and a Colonial foreman oversaw their work at all times.

"I talked to Admiral Reed earlier," Lee added as they stopped to allow several small electric vehicles to pass by them. "The twelve new settlements on the mainland are nearly completed. Each settlement will hold one of the twelve tribes. Some of the settlements will only have a few hundred people while the larger ones will have close to one thousand."

"At least we still have some survivors from all the tribes," Adama commented pleased with the progress that was being made. This would be a good world for those that were going to remain to live out their lives.

"Thanks to the colony equipment in the super colony ships, construction is proceeding very rapidly," added Kara looking around at all the work that was being done. Hundreds of work robots, as well as Colonials, were busy everywhere. Many crewmembers of the orbiting ships had volunteered to come down and help in the construction effort. "In another few weeks it will be time for us to go."

"Ready to get back in a viper?" asked Lee watching a group of workers who were working on the underground wires that connected the power system to all the cabins and buildings.

Other groups were working on water and sewer systems. Once completed this would be a very modern, but small community. There would even be a communication system that would connect all the different cabins and buildings.

"I don't know," replied Kara looking at the two men who had been so important in her life. "There is a lot of work that still needs to be done back in the Colonies. I have talked to Captain Simms, the sensor officer on the Rycon, and she says a lot of construction is being done down on Caprica. I think I might want to work down on the planet for awhile."

"Move back into your old apartment maybe?" Lee asked. He remembered her mentioning that it was still there when she had gone on the rescue mission of Anders back on Caprica.

"Maybe," Kara replied. "I guess it depends on just what I decide to do. I just want to get back to Caprica and see what's still there."

"I think we all do," Lee replied. He hadn't quite decided himself what he wanted to do when they got back.

Off in the distance, on a low series of hills that protected the small valley the new Colonial settlement was being built in, they could see a series of large wind generators. The settlement would get most of its power from the wind and a large solar power array; an emergency Tylium generator would kick in if the power levels dropped too low to serve the settlement.

"Most of the human form Cylons that are staying and their Colonial spouses are moving into this settlement," Admiral Adama noted looking over at the newly completed hospital. "This settlement will be the largest and have nearly fifteen hundred people. The others won't be this modern or have all the facilities they will have here on the island."

"I understand they finally picked out a name for this island," Kara said. In some ways, she would like to stay here on New Earth. Start over and forget her past life, but the part of her that was Starbuck wouldn't allow it.

"They are going to call the island Atlantis," replied Lee recalling the heated discussion by the settlers to come up with a name.

"After the Battlestar Atlantia," Admiral Adama said with a satisfied nod. "Admiral Nagala would have liked that."

"Atlantis," Kara repeated thoughtfully. "A very fitting name. I wonder how all of this will be remembered in the history of this planet?"

"Only time will tell," answered Lee wondering about that question himself. After all, they were 150,000 years in the past.

…

It was finally time for the fleet to leave. Admiral Adama stood next to Admiral Reed in the CIC of the Battlestar Rycon. His eyes were focused on the blue and white globe they were preparing to leave behind. His gaze switched over to one of the super colony ships, which was going to stay behind. A few of the former crewmembers of the Battlestar's Galactica and Pegasus, who were remaining behind, had volunteered to maintain the colony ship for as long as possible. They had a number of shuttles and raptors available to them, so they could go back and forth between the planet and the colony ship. With some of the basic manufacturing ability available to them on the ship, the remaining Colonial settlers should be able to get by quite well.

"It's time," commented Admiral Reed looking over at Admiral Adama. "The fleet is ready to depart."

Admiral Adama was quiet for a moment gazing back down at the planet. This was Laura's final resting place. This was where she had led them in the end with Kara's help. Adama took a deep breath and nodded. "Let's go home."

In flashes of blue-white light, the ships began to vanish one by one until only the Rycon and the colony ship remained. Then in a flash, the Rycon was gone and the super colony ship floated alone above the blue and white planet known to the remaining colonists as Earth.

Down below on the planet, Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six watched as the last blue-white flash of light indicated that the Rycon was gone, and they were alone once more. They had elected to stay behind. Gaius enjoyed his new life and the lack of daily calamities occurring in his life. It all ended suddenly when a copy of himself and Caprica Six appeared before them.

"What now?" complained Baltar gazing at his duplicate standing in front of him, which he now considered to be an angel. It had been over two years since the angel had last appeared. He had promised that their lives would be less eventful. He saw that Caprica was staring at her angel too in distaste. Whenever they had showed up in the past, they had usually brought bad news.

"You two should be smiling," the Gaius angel commented. "Your mission is now over."

"What happened before will not happen again," the Caprica angel added with a sexy smile. "The cycle has been broken!"

"We don't understand," spoke Caprica Six feeling confused. She looked over at Gaius. "Do you have any idea what they are talking about?"

"No idea at all," he responded looking over at Caprica Six.

"But you will," the Gaius angel replied as he stepped forwards and his form merged with Gaius Baltar.

The Caprica angel did the same and her body merged with Caprica Six.

Both Gaius and Caprica screamed in pain as their minds seemed to explode. Long blocked memories suddenly became available to them. Memories that had been blocked for many long years. As everything became clear, the two stared at each other in amazement.

"So that's what all this has been about," Gaius spoke in a very calm voice with confidence that had been missing for years. "This is remarkable."

"So there was a plan," spoke Caprica Six feeling very pleased at everything that had happened now that she had all of her memories back. "It worked!"

Gaius looked around at the small farm he had worked so hard on for the last few years. In the distance was a field of corn and behind him the small, sturdy cabin the two had built. Then turning to Caprica Six, he smiled. "Yes, it worked, and now it's time to go home."

…

Admiral Adama looked in amazement at the main view screen in the CIC of the Battlestar Rycon. There were a number of screens on the forward wall of the CIC, but the main one was currently focused on a ship. They had finally made their last FTL jump returning to the Ionian nebula and then passing through the tear in space-time. They were now outside the nebula where the rest of the fleet waited. He was staring in amazement at the massive Kobolan Battlecruiser Zeus, which was being displayed on the screen.

"Force fields, laser weapons, improved networked computer systems," spoke Adama shaking his head. "It all seems so fantastic."

"You should see those battlecruisers in action," Admiral Reed commented with a smile recalling several past battles. "Much of their technology has been implemented in our newer ships, including the Rycon. Terra and the Colonies are sharing their military technology to ensure the human race is prepared if we are ever attacked again."

"You mentioned these Ovions," spoke Admiral Adama recalling what Admiral Reed had said about the recent discovery of a new Ovion civilization that could someday threaten humanity. "How big a threat are they?"

"Perhaps worse than what the Cylons were," replied Reed glancing over at Lisa who was standing next to Adam listening. "The Kobolans are currently using stealth ships to determine the exact size of the space the Ovions control. We should know something definitive when we get back to Admiral Clements on Caprica Station."

"We just finished one war and another may be looming," Admiral Adama said shaking his head sadly. "I was hoping for some peaceful times ahead."

"You may still see them," Reed responded. "The new Ovion worlds are well over 1,600 light years away from the Colonies. They may never pose a threat to us."

"Let's home so," Adama replied not wanting to see another war.

"You need to travel to Terra someday Admiral," Commander Stramm commented. "Their entire world is amazing with the technological advances they have implemented."

"There is even more when we return to the Colonies," added Lisa smiling. "The Colonies are using a lot of Kobolan technology to help rebuild your worlds. I also think Adam will want to meet you. He will be very interested in your story. Especially your dealings with the Final Five."

"Colonel Tigh and Ellen are both returning with us," Adama replied. Both had wanted to return to the Colonies and start over there. "I would think Adam would be more interested in talking to them."

"I'm sure he will be excited about their safe return," replied Lisa knowing that Adam would be enthusiastic about the two members of the Final Five returning, especially Ellen. "But you're the one that caused the death of John Cavil. That alone will make Adam want to meet you. He will want to hear about John's final moments. John was the prime mover in the war against the Colonies."

"Sir," interrupted Captain Billings wanting Admiral Reed's immediate attention. "Professor Anthon is on the com line, and he says it's extremely important."

"Excuse me for a moment," spoke Admiral Reed switching on his mini com. "What is it Professor?"

"Admiral, you need to move the fleet immediately, we are in grave danger," Professor Anthon spoke excitedly.

"Danger," Admiral Reed replied confused, his eyes widening in surprise. "What type of danger?"

"Our probes that are still inside the nebula detected a small ship, slightly larger than a raptor come through the rift. It transmitted a message of some type to the eight gravity generators. Our probes are detecting a massive energy build up. I think they are going to self-destruct. We are too close. There will be a massive explosion as well as a massive gravity wave!"

"Frak!" uttered Admiral Reed looking over at Commander Stramm who was listening to the conversation on his mini com. "Do you think the small ship is from the builders of the gravity generators?"

"It has to be," Professor Anthon replied. "After it transmitted the signal it jumped away. We can't detect it anywhere. Neither can the Silent Seeker. The ship was very advanced!"

"Very well," Admiral Reed replied. Turning to Commander Stramm who was already making his way to the FTL jump station, "Commander, prepare the fleet to jump. I want to put five light years between the nebula and us as soon as possible."

"Already on it sir," Commander Stramm replied as he reached the FTL navigation officer.

Fifteen minutes later, the Colonial and Kobolan ships jumped fleeing from the nebula. Thirty minutes later, the eight gravity generators exploded in balls of pure energy annihilating the nebula and sending out a massive gravity wave, which, over the years, would be felt for nearly twenty light years.

Everyone in the CIC watched the death throes of the nebula on the main view screen. The feed was being transmitted through subspace from a probe they had left in the vicinity of the nebula. The nebula was being torn apart from the enormous blasts from the gravity generators, which now looked like miniature suns. The massive gravity wave, which had been generated, was reshaping what was left of the nebula.

"That traps them in the past," Admiral Reed spoke to Adama knowing the space-time tear was permanently sealed. "We can't send supplies or even a mission to check on them. They are cut off like no colony in our history has ever been before."

"Perhaps it was meant to be this way," replied Adama thinking about everything that had happened to him since he had fled the Colonies with the refugee fleet. "Maybe someday we will have to return to Earth and see what type of civilization our people have built. I just wonder who was in that ship. It seems as if they waited for us to pass back through before destroying the generators."

"Another mystery," Admiral Reed commented wondering just where that ship had come from. It was too much of a coincidence that the generators were destroyed so soon after the returning fleet had transited the space time tear. It was almost as if the remaining Colonials on New Earth were meant to be cut off permanently from any hope of more supplies or aid from the Colonies.

"Yes, but what about New Earth?" Admiral Adama spoke, his eyes still on the screen.

Admiral Reed's eyes widened at the thought. "150,000 years have gone by for them. They knew our history and the location of our Colonies. I wonder why we never heard from them?"

"Who knows," Admiral Adama replied. "150,000 years is a long time, a lot could have happened." Someday, he knew he might have to go to Earth and find out.

Admiral Reed nodded then turned to Commander Stramm. "Prepare the jump coordinates to take us home. We have a lot of jumps to make. It's time we get these people back to the Colonies."

…

Two hours later, Admiral Adama was standing in his assigned quarters with Lee and Kara. He put his arms around both and smiled. "What do you hear Starbuck?"

"Nothing but the rain sir," she answered with a smile.

"Then let's go home," Adama replied. "We're going back to Caprica and the Colonies where we are meant to be." Adama felt at peace. With Lee and Kara, he had his family. Out of the corner of his eyes, he thought he could see Laura standing beside the three of them smiling. He didn't try to look this time, because he knew that Laura would always be with him.

The End

_Note from the Author: One more story to go. Return to Earth will be out sometime in April. There are still a few surprises left. Who built the gravity generators, what happened to the Colonials on New Earth, and what exactly did Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six mean when they said there had been a plan? All will be revealed in the conclusion of this five story series in Return to Earth. There will also me more action in Return to Earth._

_I want to thank everyone for your support in my writing. I really have appreciated the reviews and comments from all of my readers._

_Sometime, perhaps over the summer I plan on going back and editing all five of these stories. There are quite a few grammar mistakes as well as some errors I have made in some of the different stories. I know I can make these stories a lot better. There will be more character development, more intense battle scenes, and hopefully a better over all flow to the stories. This is my vision of Battlestar Galactica, and I want it to be as perfect as possible when I am finally finished with it._

_Check out my profile and my website for other announcements. _

"


End file.
